The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced that $18.25 million in back pay has been processed for U.S. workers as part of a previously announced settlement with Apple.

The department opened an investigation into Apple in 2019 under the first Donald Trump administration, as part of the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative.

After finding that Apple’s hiring and recruitment practices deterred U.S. workers from applying to positions, the DOJ settled the matter in 2023 for $18.25 million in back pay to compensate qualifying U.S. workers and $6.75 million in civil penalties.

The claims administration process for this resolution involved a thorough, individualised assessment of thousands of potential claimants, including a review of each U.S. worker’s lost income to determine the exact back-pay amounts for each qualifying U.S. worker, as a recent DOJ statement explained.

The department’s oversight of this complex process ensured that the entire back-pay fund was exhausted and that Apple compensated qualifying U.S. workers harmed by its past practices.

In addition to monetary relief, the settlement also required Apple to give U.S. workers greater opportunities to apply for positions advertised as part of Permanent Labour Certification recruitment.

These changes included requiring Apple to post PERM positions on its external job website, accept electronic applications, and train its employees on the anti-discrimination requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“The Civil Rights Division will keep fighting for U.S. workers and will hold companies accountable for favouring temporary visa holders for American jobs,” said assistant attorney general Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We appreciate Apple’s cooperation to ensure that this settlement was fully implemented.”

Since the January 2025 relaunch of the Initiative, the Department has obtained eleven settlements to enforce the INA’s prohibition on citizenship status discrimination against companies that illegally discriminate against U.S. workers in favour of those with temporary employment visas.