Seward and Son to pay $150K for allegedly preferring non-Americans over Black American workers – HR Dive

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The Mississippi farming operation allegedly hired non-Black foreign agricultural workers and assigned them less strenuous, higher-paying jobs than Black American employees.
In a media release announcing the settlement, EEOC District Director Bradley Anderson stressed that, “Federal law prohibits employers from favoring employees in compensation or preferred work assignments based on their race or national origin.”
Seward and Son did not admit to liability, and the consent decree made no findings of fact or conclusions of law, the court document said. The $150,000 includes back pay and compensatory and punitive damages for the aggrieved individuals, according to the consent decree.
EEOC announced the settlement shortly after it released a guidance laying out how anti-American bias — a form of national origin discrimination — can violate Title VII. For instance, national origin discrimination can involve job postings stating “H-1B preferred” or “H-1B only,” referring to the employment visa program for skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations.
National origin discrimination can also include “terminating American workers who are on the ‘bench’ between job assignments” and paid at a much higher rate than visa guest workers, the guidance says.
Since early 2025, employers have been “on notice.” EEOC intends to root out businesses that “abus[e] our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers,” EEOC Chair — then-Acting-Chair — Andrea Lucas emphasized in a Feb. 19 statement.
As a prelude to that warning, EEOC announced Feb. 18 that a major hotel and resort in Guam agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle allegations it provided non-Japanese employees, including workers of American national origin, with less favorable wages, benefits and terms of employment than workers from Japan in similar or subordinate positions.
EEOC’s enforcement efforts, consistent with the Trump Administration’s prioritization of American citizens in the workplace, “will shift employer incentives, decreasing demand for illegal alien workers and decreasing abuse of the United States’ legal immigration system,” Lucas stated in February.
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A University of Washington study found that participants generally followed the hiring recommendations of biased large language models.
Knowing where employees are located is just the beginning, attorneys told HR Dive.
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A University of Washington study found that participants generally followed the hiring recommendations of biased large language models.
Knowing where employees are located is just the beginning, attorneys told HR Dive.
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