Anyone who’s ever applied for a tech job will know how competitive the process can be. Now, OpenAI finds itself in hot water after agreeing to pay $3.2 million to resolve allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Federal officials claim the AI startup intentionally favored foreign workers on temporary employment visas over qualified American job seekers.
Bizarre recruitment tactics under scrutiny
According to the DOJ’s investigation, OpenAI and its subsidiary, Statsig Inc., deliberately bypassed standard hiring practices for roles under the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program. Under federal law, companies must publicly advertise PERM positions to ensure foreign workers do not displace U.S. citizens in the labor market. However, investigators found OpenAI took unusual steps to actively discourage domestic applicants.
OpenAI reportedly chose not to list open PERM positions on its public career site, despite routinely posting all other job openings there. Even stranger, the company required applicants for these specific roles to mail physical paper applications while running job advertisements on late-night radio broadcasts.
The DOJ noted that fewer than ten positions were actually involved. However, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said that the steep settlement reflects the economic harm caused when domestic workers are denied access to lucrative technology jobs (via Politico).
Penalties, policy overhauls, and tech-wide impact
Under the terms of the deal, OpenAI will pay $1.2 million in civil penalties directly to the U.S. government. The firm will also create a $2 million back-pay fund to compensate affected job seekers. Plus, the agreement forces OpenAI to post all future PERM positions on its public career portal, accept online applications and train hiring managers on the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The firm must also submit to ongoing government monitoring.
OpenAI, for its part, pushed back against the findings. A company spokesperson stated that recruiting global talent is essential to its mission of making artificial general intelligence benefit humanity. They added that while OpenAI disagrees with the DOJ’s conclusions, they agreed to the settlement to resolve the matter and keep its PERM program moving forward.
This case represents the 13th settlement secured under the DOJ’s Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative since it relaunched in 2025. It follows similar past enforcement actions against major tech players like Meta and Apple.
The post DOJ Hits OpenAI with $3.2 Million Penalty Over US Citizen Hiring Discrimination appeared first on Android Headlines.
​Â
