Research & Data

WHEN HARASSMENT IS REPORTED

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

Almost fully one third of the approximately 90,000 charges received by EEOC in fiscal year 2015 included an allegation of workplace harassment. Read more.
Of the total number of charges received in FY2015 that alleged harassment from employees working for private employers or for state and local government employers, approximately: 45% alleged harassment on the basis of sex, 34% alleged harassment on the basis of race, 19% alleged harassment on the basis of disability, 15% alleged harassment on the basis of age, 13% alleged harassment on the basis of national origin, and 5% alleged harassment on the basis of religion.[11] Read more.
The statistics above were gathered in 2015. Since then, the #MeToo movement gained momentum, yet the number of charges filed with the EEOC alleging sex discrimination has fallen from 26,396 in 2015 to 18,762 in 2021. Read more.
People who file EEOC charges are the exception: approximately 90% of individuals who say they have experienced harassment never take formal action against the harassment, such as filing a charge or a complaint.[14] Read more.
Harassment is not limited to gender. In a survey based on a convenience sample measuring racial and ethnic harassment, researchers found that 70% of the respondents reported experiencing some form of verbal harassment and 45% reported experiencing exclusionary behaviors.[35] In addition, 69% of respondents reported witnessing at least one ethnically-harassing behavior in the last two years at work and 36% of respondents who reported that they had not experienced direct harassment indicated that they had knowledge about the harassment of other co-workers.[36] Read more.
Roughly three out of four people who experience harassment never speak to a supervisor, manager, or union representative about the harassing conduct. The incidence of reporting appears to be related to the type of harassing behavior. One study found that gender-harassing conduct 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.[62] Read more.
The most common response taken by women generally is to turn to family members, friends, and colleagues. One study found that 27% to 37% of women who experienced harassment discussed the situation with family members, while approximately 50% to 70% sought support from friends or trusted others.[59] Read more.
Most employees who experience harassment do not report the harassing behavior or file a complaint because they fear disbelief of their claim, inaction on their claim, blame, or social or professional retaliation. The fears that stop most employees from reporting harassment are well-founded. One 2003 study found that 75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced some form of retaliation.[65] Other studies have found that sexual harassment reporting is often followed by organizational indifference or trivialization of the harassment complaint as well as hostility and reprisals against the victim.[66] Such responses understandably harm the victim in terms of adverse job repercussions and psychological distress.[67] Indeed, as one researcher concluded, such results suggest that, in many work environments, the most "reasonable" course of action for the victim to take is to avoid reporting the harassment.[68] Read more.
Most people who experience sex-based harassment respond at work by avoiding the harasser (33% to 75%); denying or downplaying the gravity of the situation (54% to 73%); or attempting to ignore, forget or endure the behavior (44% to 70%). Id.

IMPACT ON EMPLOYERS

Direct Financial Impact

EEOC Charges

Charges of harassment come at a steep cost for employers. The Commission resolved 28,642 harassment allegations in 2015. Of those, 5,518 charges involving allegations of harassment were resolved in favor of the charging party through the administrative process, resulting in $125.5 million in benefits for employees. Since 2010, employers have paid out $698.7 million to employees alleging harassment through the Commission's administrative enforcement pre-litigation process alone.[71] Read more.

Internal Time, Energy and Resources Resolving Claims

A recent study by Hiscox, a liability insurance provider, paints the picture of the costs of employment disputes (albeit not only harassment claims) more broadly.[73] Studying a representative sample of closed employment dispute claims from smaller- and mid-sized companies, they found that 19% of the matters resulted in defense and settlement costs averaging $125,000 per claim.[74] And of course, for the 81% of studied charges that did not result in a payment by the insurance company, precious time, energy, and resources were still required to handle them internally - for 275 days, on average.[75] Beyond their study of the closed claims, Hiscox estimated, based on 2014 data, that U.S. employers had at least an 11.7% chance of having an EEO charge filed against them.[76] While this data applies to a broader range of employment disputes, not just harassment claims, the time, energy, and resources devoted to those claims would apply to harassment claims, as well. Read more.

Litigation Costs

Litigation of harassment claims tends to be even more expensive. One estimate of settlement payments and court judgments solely in 2012 for harassment lawsuits clocked in at over $356 million.[77] The largest sexual harassment jury award in 2012 totaled $168 million.[78] Read more.

Recent settlements include Google ($310 million), Intel ($300 million), Michigan State ($500 million), Fox News ($90 million), Catholic Healthcare West ($168 million – individual claim).

Indirect Financial Impact Lost Productivity

Numerous studies have identified the damaging effects of mistreatment in the workplace, mainly focusing on sexual harassment. Employees experiencing sexual harassment are more likely to report symptoms of depression, general stress and anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and overall impaired psychological well-being.[81] Read more.

Harassment is associated with debilitating job dissatisfaction and work withdrawal.[89] This largely takes form as disengagement from work, which is manifested as distraction, neglecting a project, malingering, tardiness, or even excessive absenteeism.[90] Read more.

Increased Health Care Costs and Wellness Implications

Studies have linked sexual harassment to decreased overall health perceptions or satisfaction, as well as headaches, exhaustion, sleep problems, gastric problems, nausea, weight loss or gain, and respiratory, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular issues.[84] These potential effects, both mental and physical, become increasingly likely when the harassment occurs over time.[85] Read more.

One study found that the psychological effects of sexual harassment can rise to the level of diagnosable Major Depressive Disorder or PTSD.[82] Sexual harassment has also been tied to psychological effects such as negative mood, disordered eating, self-blame, reduced self-esteem, emotional exhaustion, anger, disgust, envy, fear, lowered satisfaction with life in general, and abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol. Cortina & Leskinen, supra n. 81 (citing B. S. Dansky & D. G. Kilpatrick, Effects of Sexual Harassment, in Sexual Harassment: Theory, Research, and Treatment 152 (W. O'Donohue ed., 1997)).

The damaging personal effects of harassment are not limited to victims. There is growing understanding that employees who observe or perceive mistreatment in their workplace can also suffer mental and physical harm. One study found that employees, female and male alike, who observed hostility directed toward female coworkers (both incivility and sexually harassing behavior) were more likely to experience lower psychological well-being.[86] These declines in mental health were, in turn, linked to lower physical well-being.[87] According to the study, the drivers of these effects can stem from empathy and worry for the victim, concern about the lack of fairness in their workplace, or fear of becoming the next target.[88]

Kathi Minder-Rubino & Lilia Cortina, Beyond Targets: Consequences of Vicarious Exposure to Misogyny at Work, 92 J. Applied Psych. 1254, 1264 (2007). Read more.

Employee Turnover

Studies show that targets of harassment were 6.5 times as likely as non-targets to change jobs. Costs related to employee turnover constitute the largest economic cost of sexual harassment, considerably higher than costs related to litigation. Replacing an employee can be very expensive. The cost of replacing an employee can range from 16 to 20 percent of a worker’s annual salary, up to 213 percent of salary for experienced managerial and professional staff. Read more.

It is more cost effective to fire superstar harassers than to look the other way. A recent Harvard Business School study found that the profit consequences of retaining so-called "toxic workers" - specifically including those who are "top performers" - is a net negative. Michael Housman & Dylan Minor, Toxic Workers, Harv. Bus. Sch. (2015), at 22.