Analysis
OpenAI has agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it discriminated against US workers by favoring temporary visa holders in its hiring process -- $1.2 million in civil penalties plus $2 million set aside for workers the DOJ determined were affected.
Federal investigators alleged specific practices designed to discourage US applicants: failing to advertise certain PERM-track positions on OpenAI's own careers website, requiring paper applications by mail for some roles while accepting electronic applications for others, and running radio advertisements late at night for positions the company was legally required to make genuinely accessible to US workers.
“The settlement is the Justice Department's 13th under its Protecting U.S.”
The settlement is the Justice Department's 13th under its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative since the program was relaunched in 2025 to strengthen enforcement of citizenship-status discrimination bans under the Immigration and Nationality Act -- signaling this is part of a sustained federal enforcement push across the tech sector, not an isolated case aimed specifically at OpenAI.
OpenAI denied wrongdoing as part of the agreement but accepted a set of forward-looking compliance requirements: posting all jobs publicly on its careers site, accepting electronic applications uniformly, training relevant staff on hiring compliance, and submitting to ongoing DOJ monitoring and reporting.
What to watch: whether other major AI labs face similar DOJ scrutiny over PERM-track hiring practices as the administration's worker-protection initiative continues, and whether this settlement changes how AI companies structure visa-sponsored hiring pipelines relative to open, US-accessible postings going forward.
