Sexual harassment claims are governed in California by the Fair Employment and Housing Act, which provides broader protections than federal law in several important respects, including covering smaller employers and applying to a wider range of conduct. Understanding what the law actually covers helps employees recognize when workplace sexual harassment crosses the line from unpleasant to unlawful.
The Two Main Types of Sexual Harassment
California law generally recognizes two forms of sexual harassment. The first is quid pro quo harassment, where employment decisions, such as hiring, promotion, or continued employment, are conditioned on submitting to unwelcome sexual advances. The second, and more common, is hostile work environment harassment, where unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature is severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment.
Hostile work environment claims do not require a single dramatic incident. A pattern of comments, jokes, unwanted contact, or inappropriate messages can be enough when considered together, even if any one incident alone might seem minor. We explain this overlap further on our page about the hostile work environment standard.
Who Can Be Held Responsible
Harassment does not have to come from a supervisor. Coworkers, clients, vendors, and even non-employees can be a source of unlawful harassment, and employers can be held liable if they knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take immediate corrective action. When the harasser is a supervisor, employers face an even higher standard of liability, and the company can be held strictly liable for that supervisor’s conduct in many situations.
Common Examples of Sexual Harassment
- Unwanted physical contact or invasions of personal space
- Repeated comments about someone’s body, appearance, or sex life
- Sexually explicit jokes, images, or messages shared at work
- Persistent requests for dates after being told no
- Retaliation against an employee for rejecting advances or reporting harassment
Not every offensive comment rises to the level of unlawful harassment, but a sustained pattern of this behavior often does. What matters is whether the conduct was unwelcome and whether it was severe or pervasive enough to affect the working environment.
Reporting and Protection From Retaliation
Employees who report harassment, whether internally or to a government agency, are protected from retaliation for doing so. In practice, retaliation claims often arise alongside harassment claims, since employees sometimes face pushback specifically because they spoke up. If that happens to you, our page on workplace retaliation explains those separate protections. Harassment based on sex is also connected to California’s broader framework of protected classes. You can file a complaint directly with the California Civil Rights Department through its official website.
What Employees Can Recover
Remedies can include back pay, emotional distress damages, punitive damages in appropriate cases, and attorney’s fees. Because these cases often depend heavily on witness accounts and internal records, employees are usually better off documenting incidents as they happen rather than trying to reconstruct events later.
At Michael Yerzinkyan Law, we understand how difficult it can be to come forward about harassment, and we work to help employees understand their options and what evidence tends to matter most in these cases. If you are dealing with harassment at work, you can contact our office for a confidential conversation.
The value of a sexual harassment claim depends on factors such as how long the conduct lasted, how the employer responded once it was reported, and the impact on the employee’s health and career. Cases involving repeated conduct, or an employer that ignored complaints, tend to carry more significant exposure than isolated incidents that were promptly addressed.
This article is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. If you believe you have experienced sexual harassment at work, consider speaking with a licensed employment attorney about the specific facts of your situation.