Evidence

VALIDATION

Third to First has shared this concept with corporate policyholders across industries, and nine months of conversations have confirmed the market demand for coverage that responds to substantiated harassment as a first-party loss.

In addition, our thought leadership has been featured across the ecosystem surrounding EPLI, including legal, insurance, and workplace safety:

• Fast Company World Changing Ideas finalist, 2022 (recognized as Safe at Work, Third to First's parent)

• Press: Fixing EPLI, Professional Liability Underwriting Society Blog, June 2026

• Podcasts: Wellness Law interview, May 2026; Inclusionism podcast, March 2026.

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WHEN HARASSMENT IS REPORTED

The harassment claim that a carrier sees is the exception. Most harassment is never reported, and when it is, the policy's design treats the person who reported as the claimant. The data show why so few people come forward.
 

• Harassment was alleged in 40.4% of the 88,531 charges the EEOC received in fiscal year 2024, up from roughly one third in fiscal year 2015. Read more.

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According to the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace:​

• People who file EEOC charges are the exception: approximately 90% of individuals who say they have experienced harassment never take formal action, such as filing a charge or a complaint.

• Roughly three out of four never speak to a supervisor, manager, or union representative. Reporting varies by behavior: in one study, gender harassment was almost never reported, unwanted physical touching was formally reported only 8% of the time, and sexually coercive behavior was reported by only 30% of the women who experienced it.

• Most who don't report fear disbelief, inaction, blame, or retaliation, and those fears are well-founded. One 2003 study found that 75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced some form of retaliation. As one researcher concluded, in many workplaces the most "reasonable" course of action for the victim is not to report.

• Most people who experience sex-based harassment respond by avoiding the harasser (33% to 75%), downplaying the situation (54% to 73%), or trying to ignore or endure it (44% to 70%).

Read more: EEOC Select Task Force report
 

WHAT IT COSTS THE EMPLOYER

The visible cost. Harassment matters that reach the EEOC are the part of the problem everyone can see. In fiscal year 2025, the EEOC secured $660 million for 17,680 people across all charge types, including a record $528 million recovered before any lawsuit was filed (EEOC, April 2026).
 

The cost before escalation. Most of what harassment costs an employer never reaches a charge or the Legal Department. It accrues earlier, between the incident and any formal escalation:

• Attrition. Women who experienced sexual harassment were 6.5 times as likely as their peers to change jobs, according to a longitudinal study published in Gender & Society (McLaughlin, Uggen & Blackstone, 2017). Every departure carries recruiting, onboarding, and lost-productivity costs.

• Retaining a harmful employee. Harvard Business School research by Housman and Minor found that avoiding a single toxic worker is worth more to a company than hiring a top performer.

• Disruption. Investigations, reassignments, and the management time they consume fall on the business while the situation is still unresolved.

​These are first-party losses. They belong to the employer, and they are never in the policy's view.

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THE UNCOVERED LOSS, QUANTIFIED​

To put a number on that loss, Third to First built a predictive cost calculator. It estimates the annual costs a company incurs due to workplace harassment between incident occurrence and formal escalation to Legal: turnover, disruption, and the other first-party costs that current EPLI coverage never sees. Its inputs come from published benchmarks, so each one can be traced to its source: the NAVEX Whistleblowing & Incident Management Benchmark Report, the HR Acuity Employee Relations Benchmark Study, EEOC charge statistics, and SHRM talent-acquisition and replacement-cost benchmarks. The calculator is available to review under NDA.