Accenture to Pay $25 Million Settlement Over Alleged Illegal DEI Practices
Accenture has agreed to a $25 million payment to resolve Justice Department claims that it used illegal race-based employment metrics while publicly denying such practices.
The Justice Department accused Accenture of maintaining color-coded dashboards and separate promotion tracks that favored certain demographic groups, mirroring tactics previously penalized at IBM and Deloitte. Accenture settled the allegations by agreeing to pay $25 million, without admitting wrongdoing. The settlement follows IBM’s $17 million and Deloitte’s $21.5 million fines for comparable violations.
Why it matters
The settlement highlights federal enforcement of anti-discrimination laws against major consulting firms' diversity programs.
In this story
settlementemployment discriminationdiversity metricsrace-based scorecardsfederal finesconsulting firms
