IBM To Pay $17M Over Alleged DEI Practices
IBM has agreed to pay $17 million to the US Department of Justice to settle allegations of illegal DEI practices, as CNN reported. The DOJ believes that the tech company engaged in illegal DEI practices” by factoring in “race, color, national origin, or sex” when hiring or promoting employees.
The settlement
“IBM is pleased to have resolved this matter. Our workforce strategy is driven by a single principle: having the right people with the right skills that our clients depend on,” an IBM spokesperson told TechCrunch.
In May 2025, the DOJ began using the False Claims Act to target diversity initiatives at colleges, including IBM, alleging they violated the act by maintaining “practices that the United States contends were discriminatory employment practices,” according to a press release published on Friday, 10th April.
“Racial discrimination is illegal, and government contractors cannot evade the law by repackaging it as DEI,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the announcement.
Trump rolling back DEI initiatives
In January 2025, President Trump revoked a six-decade-old executive order that prohibited workplace discrimination by federal contractors.
Executive Order 11246 stopped federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Since then, several companies have scaled back their DEI initiatives to comply with Trump’s executive orders.
Image: Reuters/Abdul Saboor
