Lockheed Martin agreed to pay $29.5 million to resolve allegations that its diversity programs shaped pay and promotions by race and sex, the Justice Department announced on Nov. 3. The Lockheed Martin DEI settlement has two parts, one with the Justice Department and one with the EEOC.
The money splits into $22 million to the United States and about $7.5 million to more than 1,000 Lockheed employees, the release says. The federal government keeps nearly three times what the workers receive, a calculation from the two figures, because the larger payment resolves a False Claims Act case about what the company told the government and not a claim about what any employee lost.
How the Settlement Splits
The $22 million settles a False Claims Act suit, United States ex rel. Booher v. Lockheed Martin Corp., filed in the Northern District of Texas. A former Lockheed vice president, Tim Booher, brought it under the law’s whistleblower provision and will receive $4.4 million. The $7.5 million comes from a separate agreement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that resolves a Commissioner’s Charge the agency opened in 2025 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Spread across “more than 1,000” employees, $7.5 million works out to no more than $7,500 a person on average, a calculation from the release. The release calls it the largest class recovery in an EEOC settlement involving alleged Title VII violations tied to DEI.
What the Government Alleges
The government alleges Lockheed falsely certified that it complied with nondiscrimination requirements on federal contracts. The release points to a program that began in 2021 and was known as the “Compensation Adder,” which gave an extra raise beyond the company-wide increase to the top 20% of employees in each business area.
The government alleges human resources staff pressured leaders to add or remove employees from that group based on race and sex to clear statistical flags. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said, “Title VII protects every worker from employment discrimination on the basis of race.” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said the department is committed to ending what he called “woke, unconstitutional practices.”
What Lockheed Did and Did Not Concede
The release says Lockheed cooperated in resolving the matters and says the claims are allegations only, with no determination of liability. The False Claims Act route is the part to watch for other contractors. A pay dispute can end with the EEOC. Here the Justice Department treated a company’s certification to the government as the false statement, and that theory produced the larger payment. The best case for the approach is the one Lucas makes: a worker’s race should not decide pay, and the settlement pays workers who were allegedly affected. The EEOC may review Lockheed’s compliance over the term of its agreement, the release says.
