OpenAI to pay $3.2M

OpenAI agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle U.S. allegations that it favored temporary visa holders over American job applicants in a small set of technology roles tied to the green-card sponsorship process. The Justice Department said on August 4 that OpenAI OpCo and its subsidiary Statsig discriminated against U.S. workers during recruitment for jobs covered by the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, program. The government said the companies did not advertise those openings on OpenAI’s public careers page, required paper applications for the PERM roles while allowing electronic applications for others, and in some cases ran radio ads late at night. ### What exactly did the government say OpenAI did? The Justice Department said OpenAI violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by preferring workers with temporary employment visas when recruiting for PERM positions. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said, “It is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs.” The department said the company’s recruitment methods gave U.S. workers less chance to see and apply for those openings. (justice.gov) The PERM program lets employers sponsor workers for permanent resident status if they complete good-faith recruitment and cannot find qualified U.S. workers, according to the Justice Department. In this case, the department said OpenAI failed to follow recruitment practices it used for other jobs, including posting openings on its external job site and accepting electronic applications. (justice.gov) ### Why is the settlement amount $3.2 million if fewer than 10 jobs were involved? The Justice Department said fewer than 10 PERM positions were at issue, but it described the jobs as lucrative technology roles and said the payout reflected the harm caused when U.S. workers were shut out of applying. Under the settlement, OpenAI will pay $1.2 million in civil penalties to the United States and set up a $2 million back-pay fund for victims. (justice.gov) The agreement also requires policy changes beyond the money. OpenAI must post PERM jobs on its public careers website, accept electronic applications, train personnel on anti-discrimination rules and comply with departmental monitoring and reporting requirements. ### Where does Statsig fit into this case? The Justice Department named Statsig Inc., a Bellevue, Washington-based software development company, as part of the settlement alongside OpenAI OpCo. (justice.gov) The department’s August 4 release referred to the two companies together as “OpenAI” for purposes of the case. That matters because the settlement covers the combined recruitment practices the department investigated, not only one legal entity. (justice.gov) The public release does not break out separate payment amounts for OpenAI and Statsig. ### Is this about H-1B visas or green cards? The case centers on PERM recruitment, which is part of the employment-based green-card process, not the H-1B petition process itself. (justice.gov) The Justice Department said the alleged discrimination happened when the companies hired and recruited during the PERM process for workers they wanted to sponsor for permanent residence. The broader labor rules sit in a wider immigration enforcement framework. The Labor Department says employers using employment-based visa programs must meet recruitment and worker-protection requirements, and its H-1B guidance separately describes protections for U.S. workers in some cases. ### Why is this landing now, as OpenAI expands? OpenAI disclosed on July 31 that its models now reach more than one billion active users and more than two million businesses. (justice.gov) The company also announced GPT-5.6 price cuts on July 30, including an 80% reduction for Luna and a 20% cut for Terra, while keeping Sol as its flagship model and adding a faster premium mode. Those announcements are separate from the hiring case, but they show the scale of the company at the time the settlement arrived. (dol.gov) OpenAI’s Help Center also says GPT-5.6 Terra and Luna are replacing older models in Codex for ChatGPT-signed-in users on August 31, 2026. ### What happens next for applicants and for OpenAI? The Justice Department said the next step is implementation of the settlement terms, including the $2 million back-pay fund and the required changes to recruiting procedures. (openai.com) U.S. workers who believe they were affected can monitor the department’s Civil Rights Division and Immigrant and Employee Rights Section pages for case-related information and enforcement updates. (justice.gov) (help.openai.com)