California has some of the strongest workplace protections in the country, yet sexual harassment remains a persistent problem across industries statewide. Whether you work in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, or anywhere else in California, understanding how common this issue really is, and what legal protections exist under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), can help you recognize when your rights have been violated. Our California employment law team at Valiant Law has gathered the latest data on workplace sexual harassment to show just how widespread the problem still is, and what employees across the state can do about it.
Most Harassment in California Still Goes Unreported
National data shows that anywhere from 87% to 94% of employees who experience unwanted sexual conduct at work never file a formal complaint about it. Unwanted sexual touching is reported only about 8% of the time. For California workers, that gap matters: FEHA gives employees a three-year window from the last act of harassment to file a complaint with the state's Civil Rights Department (CRD), but that protection only helps if people know it exists and feel safe using it.
If you've experienced harassment and stayed quiet because you weren't sure it was "bad enough" to report, you're far from alone, and the law doesn't require your experience to be extreme before it counts.
California Sees Hundreds of Formal Harassment Complaints Every Year
According to the CRD's own historical data, California has averaged about 427 formal workplace sexual harassment complaints annually. That number reflects only the cases that made it through the formal complaint process, not the full scope of harassment happening in workplaces across the state. Industries with steep power imbalances, including hospitality, entertainment, retail, and technology, continue to see a disproportionate share of these complaints.
National Data Mirrors What California Employees Report
A survey from the National Women's Law Center found that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men report experiencing workplace sexual harassment at some point in their careers. Younger and newer employees are especially vulnerable, often because they're less familiar with their rights or worried that reporting could jeopardize a job they've only recently started.
California law doesn't treat these employees any differently than more senior staff. Under FEHA, every employee, regardless of tenure, immigration status, or job title, has the right to a workplace free from sexual harassment.
Retaliation Is Still the Most Common Complaint Employees File
Nationally, retaliation has been the single most common allegation filed with the EEOC for well over a decade, and California employees report similar patterns to the CRD. Retaliation can show up in ways that are easy for an employer to disguise as routine business decisions, such as:
- A sudden demotion or reduction in hours
- Being excluded from meetings, projects, or promotions
- A poor performance review that appears shortly after a complaint
- Termination framed as a layoff or restructuring
California law offers some of the strongest anti-retaliation protections in the country specifically because retaliation is so often used to punish employees for speaking up.
California Employers Are Required to Take Prevention Seriously
Unlike many states, California requires most employers with five or more employees to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees at least once every two years, with supervisors receiving additional training on how to recognize and respond to complaints. When employers fail to meet these obligations, or fail to act on a complaint once it's made, they can be held legally accountable under FEHA in addition to federal law.
Valiant Law Is Ready to Help
These numbers show just how common workplace sexual harassment remains, even in a state with strong legal protections on the books. If you've experienced sexual harassment at work anywhere in California, you don't have to navigate the CRD complaint process or your legal options alone.
At Valiant Law, our California employment attorneys will listen to what happened, walk you through your rights under FEHA, and help you pursue the accountability and compensation you deserve. Contact us today at (909) 254-5771 or through our online contact form to schedule a free consultation.
Sources:
- California Civil Rights Department (CRD), historical sexual harassment complaint data (1997–2022)
- National Women's Law Center, workplace sexual harassment survey
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), enforcement and retaliation data
- California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and SB 1343 harassment prevention training requirements