We obviously feel strongly about sexual harassment prevention training since that's what we do. And it does our heart good to see more and more states passing legislation requiring employers to provide sexual harassment prevention training to their employees. If we had our druthers, every employer would simply want to provide this training without it being a requirement. But until our wish comes true, these states currently mandate training: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York.
California
Employers with 5 or more employees, including temporary or seasonal employees, are required to provide supervisors/managers with at least 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training and at least 1 hour of sexual harassment prevention training to individual employees (non-supervisor/manager).
An employer is required to train its California-based employees so long as it employs 5 or more employees anywhere, even if they do not work at the same location and even if not all of them work or reside in California.
What California says about training: Fair Employment and Housing Act
Connecticut
Connecticut passed the Time's Up Act requiring employers with 3+ employees to provide 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training to all employees. Employers with less than 3 employees must provide training for supervisory employees. For new employees, training must be within 6 months of their state date. Supplemental training must be provided no less than every 10 years.
What Connecticut says about training: Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities
Delaware
Employers with 50+ employees must provide sexual harassment prevention training to employees every 2 years. New employees and new supervisors must be trained within 1 year from their start date. Additional interactive training must be provided to supervisors.
What Delaware says about training: Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act
Illinois
All employers are required to provide sexual harassment training to all employees annually. The training must include a summary of federal and state statutes including remedies available to victims. Employers are encouraged to train new employees as soon as possible but no later than the end of the calendar year in which they were hired.
What Illinois says about training: Illinois Department of Human Rights
Maine
Employers with 15+ employees must provide sexual harassment training to all employees within one year of hire. Supervisors and managers must receive additional training within one year of promotion.
What Maine says about training: Maine Human Rights Act
New York
All employers must provide interactive sexual harassment prevention training every year to their employees.
What New York says about training: New York State Division of Human Rights
Get ready! Your state could be next. Want to get a jump on the training you provide to your employees or just have questions? Reach out to us and let's look at what training option might work best with your organization.