The U.S. Department of Labor announced yesterday that it reached a $5 million settlement with Intel to "resolve allegations of systemic pay discrimination against female, African American and Hispanic American employees" at several facilities.
Intel's employees in Arizona, California and Oregon will receive $3.5 million in back pay and interest as part of the settlement. The company also agreed to allocate "at least" $1.5 million in "pay-equity adjustments for the next five years for U.S. employees in engineering positions as part of its annual pay equity analysis."
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs regional director Jane Suhr said in the announcement that "Intel Corp. is one of the first technology companies to take multiple proactive steps to ensure pay equity." (Although, it's only proactive in the sense that Intel settled--being truly proactive would've avoided this issue altogether.)
The Labor Department didn't offer any other details about the allegations. It's not clear how many employees complained, how many other employees might be affected or how large the gap in wages was.
Intel employees are supposed to be able to use the OFCCP Class Member Locator (opens in new tab) to submit a claim for back pay as part of this settlement, according to the Labor Department's announcement, but the case isn't listed at time of writing. The office does offer a toll-free helpline, 1-800-397-6251.
