{"id":1429,"date":"2026-04-11T23:37:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T23:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T15:37:49","slug":"ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million\/","title":{"rendered":"IBM settles its DEI lawsuit with the DOJ for $17 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/science\/ibm-announces-nighthawk-and-loon-quantum-chips-213603769.html\">IBM<\/a> has agreed to settle the US Department of Justice&#8217;s accusations that the company violated civil rights laws with its <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/big-tech\/state-department-calibri-font-was-a-dei-hire-190454957.html\">DEI practices<\/a>. According to a <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/ibm-pays-17-million-resolve-allegations-discrimination-through-illegal-dei-practices\">press release<\/a> from the DOJ, IBM will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations of taking &#8220;race, color, national origin, or sex&#8221; into account when making employment decisions. This settlement is the latest development in a longstanding effort from the Trump administration to end DEI programs, which was kick-started from an <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:4;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/fact-sheets\/2025\/01\/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-protects-civil-rights-and-merit-based-opportunity-by-ending-illegal-dei\/\">executive order<\/a> in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p>IBM denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement wasn&#8217;t an admission of liability, while the US government said this conclusion wasn&#8217;t a concession that its claims weren&#8217;t well founded, according to the settlement agreement. According to the DOJ, IBM had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with practices that included altering &#8220;interview criteria based on race or sex,&#8221; developing &#8220;race and sex demographic goals for business units,&#8221; using &#8220;a diversity modifier that tied bonus compensation to achieving demographic targets&#8221; and more.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An IBM spokesperson told Engadget in an email that the company &#8220;is pleased to have resolved this matter,&#8221; adding that &#8220;our workforce strategy is driven by a single principle: having the right people with the right skills that our clients depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Todd Blanche, the agency&#8217;s acting attorney general, this action is one of the first resolutions to come out of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which was launched in May 2025. IBM isn&#8217;t the only company to alter its policies, with both <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/mobile\/t-mobile-ends-dei-programs-in-attempt-to-win-deal-approvals-from-the-fcc-202239612.html\">T-Mobile<\/a> and <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1\" class=\"no-affiliate-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/big-tech\/metas-right-wing-reinvention-also-includes-an-end-to-dei-programs-and-trans-messenger-themes-204031848.html\">Meta<\/a> agreeing to put an end to its DEI initiatives last year.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/big-tech\/ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million-153749285.html?src=rss<\/p><p>Please credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\">OBA Blog<\/a> &raquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/11\/ibm-settles-its-dei-lawsuit-with-the-doj-for-17-million\/\">IBM settles its DEI lawsuit with the DOJ for $17 million<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IBM has agreed to settle the US Department of Justice&#8217;s accusations that the company violated civil rights laws with its DEI practices. According to a press release from the DOJ, IBM will pay more than $17 million to resolve allegations of taking &#8220;race, color, national origin, or sex&#8221; into account when making employment decisions. This settlement is the latest development in a longstanding effort from the Trump administration to end DEI programs, which was kick-started from an executive order in early 2025. IBM denied any wrongdoing and said the settlement wasn&#8217;t an admission of liability, while the US government said this conclusion wasn&#8217;t a concession that its claims weren&#8217;t well founded, according to the settlement agreement. According to the DOJ, IBM had violated the Civil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obagg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}