Big Data analytics firm Palantir Technologies Inc. has taken the easy road and decided to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor that alleged it discriminated against Asian job applicants.

The suit, filed in September, alleged that Palantir systematically rejected Asian applicants in the resume screening and telephone interview phases even when they were as qualified as white applicants. In one case cited in the lawsuit, Palantir reviewed a pool of more than 130 qualified applicants for a number of positions and, while 73 percent of applicants were Asian, only four Asian applicants were hired, along with 17 non-Asian applicants.“The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a billion,” the lawsuit noted.

Palantir fired back in October, claiming the methodology used by the U.S. Department of Labor is incorrect. It argued that its statistical analysis is faulty because the suit addressed only three out of 44 jobs for which Palantir hired employees within the analysis period. It also said the analysis counted all resumes submitted, including unsolicited applications from sites such as Craigslist, even if they were from people without skills required for the job.

The most notable takeaway number from a company that is alleged to discriminate against Asians is how many people with Asian backgrounds Palantir employs: Asians make up 36 percent of its workforce, compared with only 5.6 percent of the overall U.S. population.

Under the terms of the settlement, Palantir has agreed to pay $1.7 in back wages and other monetary relief, including the value of stock options, to the “affected class” and extend job offers to eight eligible class members.

“We appreciate Palantir working with us to resolve these issues,” Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Acting Director Thomas Dowd said in a statement. “Together, we will ensure that the company complies with equal employment opportunity laws in its recruitment, hiring and other employment practices.”

A settlement of $1.7 million and a couple of jobs is a cheap day for Palantir. Defending the lawsuit could have cost it tens of millions of dollars and put the company at risk of being banned from federal contracts — a source of revenue for the company that is well into the hundreds of millions a year.

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