Jobs' Mob has agreed to pay $6.75 million in civil penalties and establish an $18.25 million fund for back pay to eligible discrimination victims, the DOJ said in a release.

Apple was accused of not advertising positions it wanted to fill through a federal program called the Permanent Labor Certification Program or PERM. It allowed US companies to recruit workers who could become permanent US residents after jumping through some more hurdles.

The DOJ believed Apple followed procedures to favour current Apple employees holding temporary visas who wanted to become permanent employees.

Apple was accused of not advertising positions on its external website and erecting hurdles such as requiring mailed paper applications, which the DOJ alleges means that some applicants to Apple jobs were not adequately considered under federal law.

"These less effective recruitment procedures deterred US applicants from applying and nearly always resulted in zero or very few mailed applications that Apple considered for PERM-related job positions, which allowed Apple to fill the positions with temporary visa holders," according to the settlement agreement between Apple and DOJ.

However, despite writing a considerable cheque, Apple insists it did nothing wrong and contests the accusation. It believed it was following the appropriate Department of Labor regulations.

Apple said that any failures resulted from inadvertent errors and not discrimination.