Intel underpaid Black engineer for years then fired him, lawsuit alleges

The gap never closed, according to the complaint. He alleges he did the work of three engineers, led a task force critical to Intel’s roughly $40.5 billion Tiger Lake product roadmap, and earned eight technical awards, but got a one percent raise. He alleges a White peer presented his work as his own and moved up, and that colleagues who are not Black held higher grades and higher pay for comparable work.

A promised promotion to Grade 8 never materialized, the filing says. When another team picked him for a transfer in 2024, he alleges his second-level manager blocked it, telling the hiring lead that he had bad intentions.

Intel ended his employment effective July 31, 2025, calling it a reduction in force or role redundancy, according to the complaint. He alleges that reason was a pretext. He points to a five percent merit increase about a month before the exit, a requirement that he train a designated successor days beforehand, and a later reposting of his role to Bangalore, India.

The complaint adds a separation wrinkle that will interest HR teams. It alleges an HR employee assured him in writing that Intel was fully compliant with the federal WARN Act, the law that generally requires 60 days’ notice of a covered mass layoff. But the filing says his position was left off Intel’s timely July filings and reported to the state only weeks after he departed, as a “count of one.” He alleges he signed his separation agreement minutes before losing system access, with no chance to consult counsel, and that Intel’s own records contain no executed copy of that release.

He also alleges Intel later declined to rehire him despite high scores in its own applicant system, and that the company kept an internal “Context Person” view consolidating his race, sex, and terminated status into a profile visible to recruiters.