Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces $1.2 Million Settlement with Deloitte Over Discriminatory DEI Practices

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that Deloitte has agreed to pay $1.2 million to the State of Florida to resolve allegations that the company violated Florida law by engaging 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" said Attorney General James Uthmeier. "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, 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 that 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 of Florida.

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 approximately $1.2 million to the State of Indiana to resolve parallel allegations under the federal False Claims Act and similar state laws.

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