Accenture has become the most recent firm to incur costs tied to the Trump administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
On Monday, the Department of Justice revealed that the technology and consulting company will pay $25 million to resolve accusations that it did not meet anti-discrimination obligations in its federal contracts.
The DOJ alleged that Accenture discriminated against workers and job seekers by factoring race or gender into hiring and promotion choices from 2017 through 2026.
Among the claims, the agency said Accenture granted ‘extra visibility’ to managing‑director candidates who helped boost racial or gender demographics, and that leaders in Accenture Federal Services received monthly breakdowns of the racial and gender composition of their units to guide hiring.
A spokesperson for Accenture told Themoneytimes that the firm follows all relevant laws and that the settlement does not amount to an admission of wrongdoing.
‘We have cooperated fully with the government’s review and are glad to close this chapter to avoid the expense and distraction of drawn‑out litigation,’ the spokesperson added.
This marks the third major consultancy to reach a multi‑million‑dollar settlement this year, following a May 2025 initiative launched by Attorney General Todd Blanche known as the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative.
Earlier, in April, IBM agreed to a $17 million payment to settle comparable employment‑discrimination charges, and in August Deloitte paid $21.5 million. Combined, the three firms have now paid $63.5 million.
All three were charged with similar DEI‑related practices while holding federal contracts, allegedly violating the False Claims Act. IBM and Deloitte likewise did not concede liability in their agreements.
The settlements form part of a wider Trump‑administration investigation into DEI programs at large federal contractors.
At the outset of his second term, Trump issued an executive order terminating diversity initiatives across the federal government, a move that rippled into the private sector and prompted many big companies to scale back their DEI efforts.
Deloitte, a major government contractor as well as a corporate adviser, trimmed some of its DEI policies and instructed certain employees to delete pronouns from their email signatures.
Consulting firms have also been pressed to defend their fees under the current administration. In March 2025, federal agencies were directed to scrutinize spending on contracts with ten leading firms, among them Deloitte and Accenture Federal Services.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet noted at the time that the administration’s cost‑cutting drive had dented revenue and slowed the acquisition of new projects. Since March 2025, the company’s share price has dropped about 40%.