James Uthmeier
TALLAHASSEE – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office has announced Deloitte has agreed to pay $1.2 million to the state to resolve allegations the company engaged in discriminatory employment practices based on race and sex, even though they were certifying compliance with anti-discrimination requirements in state contracts.
“It is against the law for government contractors to reward or penalize employees based on race or sex, and discrimination under DEI is still discrimination” Uthmeier said. “Merit drives opportunity in Florida, not someone’s race or sex. This settlement makes it clear that illegal discrimination will not be tolerated by companies doing business with our state. We will continue to root out unlawful DEI practices wherever they appear.”
The settlement resolves allegations that from approximately 2017 to early 2025, The AG’s office says Deloitte took race or sex into account when making hiring, promotion and staffing decisions to achieve progress toward non-public race- and sex-based workforce composition goals. Business units within Deloitte received monthly summaries tracking demographic goals, color-coded green, yellow or red depending on whether the goal was exceeded, met or slightly missed or significantly below target.
Florida alleged partners, principals and managing directors were evaluated in part based on their contributions to helping the firm achieve its workforce composition goals, and for a two-year period the compensation of approximately 150 of Deloitte’s most senior leaders were impacted if their business units did not meet the demographic targets. Business units were assigned goals for the racial and sex makeup of yearly partner classes. Additionally, certain training, mentoring, leadership development programs, educational opportunities, and similar resources were limited to employees based on their race or sex.
These practices allegedly occurred while Deloitte certified compliance with requirements to provide equal opportunity to employees and applicants without regard to race or sex as a condition of its contracts with the state.
This resolution is part of a coordinated settlement in which Deloitte also agreed to pay $21.5 million to the United States Department of Justice and about $1.2 million to the State of Indiana to resolve parallel allegations under the federal False Claims Act and similar state laws.
