How Seven States Mandate Employers to Train on Sexual Harassment

Editor’s note: The original version of this article, published in June of 2020, reached an initial conclusion for California and its statute’s applicability to religious organizations. However, based upon new developments and additional time to interpret the statute, this article was revised in July of 2020 to reflect a new conclusion.

Further, on July 1, 2020, Illinios changed its minimum threshold for training to one employee. This change is reflected below.

The seven states mandating employers to provide sexual harassment training require several common topics to be covered, but also vary in several significant ways.

Courts will likely apply these statutes to claims against church employers, unless the courts recognize a religious exception.

Here, then, are key highlights for each state’s statutes.

California

Beginning in 2021, all California employers with five or more employees ...