Sexual Harassment and Assault

What counts as sexual harassment at work in New York?

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct because of sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, or pregnancy that affects your working conditions. It is unlawful under federal, New York State, and New York City law. You do not have to be touched, propositioned, or fired for it to be illegal.

Two points surprise most people who call us.

First, New York no longer requires you to prove the harassment was “severe or pervasive.” The 2019 amendments to the New York State Human Rights Law replaced that test. Harassment is unlawful under state law when it subjects you to inferior terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of a protected characteristic. The employer’s remaining defense is narrow: it must show the conduct was no more than a petty slight or a trivial inconvenience.

Second, the law protects you at any size employer. Federal Title VII applies only to employers with 15 or more employees. New York’s Human Rights Law applies to every employer in the state, and it extends protection to non-employees in the workplace: independent contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, and their employees.

Which conduct is unlawful sexual harassment, and which is not?

Conduct is unlawful when it is unwelcome, based on sex or gender, and affects your terms or conditions of employment. Conduct that is merely unpleasant, uncomfortable, or unprofessional, without a sex- or gender-based reason behind it, generally is not.

Conduct that regularly supports a claim:

• Sexual comments, jokes, or questions about your body, sex life, or appearance
• Repeated requests for dates after you have declined
• Unwanted touching, hugging, brushing, blocking a doorway, or standing too close
• Sending or displaying sexual images, videos, or memes, including by text, Slack, Teams, or DM
• Spreading sexual rumors about you or discussing you sexually with coworkers
• Comments about your pregnancy, fertility, menopause, or plans to have children
• Slurs or hostility directed at your sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
• Being demeaned, excluded, sabotaged, or given the worst assignments because of your sex, even where nothing sexual is said
• Pressure to tolerate a client’s or customer’s behavior as “part of the job”
• Being demoted, cut in hours, transferred, or fired after you refuse or report

Conduct that generally does not support a claim:

• A rude, demanding, or abusive boss who treats everyone badly for reasons unrelated to sex or gender
• A single, mild, ambiguous remark that is promptly stopped and is not repeated
• A genuinely welcome relationship between coworkers, unless it later becomes unwelcome or is used to extract job benefits
• Ordinary workplace friction, favoritism, or personality conflict

Two clarifications matter. Harassment between people of the same sex is unlawful, and the harasser does not need to be motivated by sexual desire. Harassment by someone who is not your supervisor (a coworker, a client, a vendor, a patient) can also make the employer liable, particularly where the employer knew or should have known and failed to act.

What are the two legal theories: quid pro quo and hostile work environment?

Sexual harassment claims are usually framed one of two ways, and many cases include both.

Quid pro quo harassment

A person with authority conditions a job benefit on submitting to sexual conduct, or punishes you for refusing. The classic version is explicit: a promotion for a date, a shift change for a hotel-room visit. The common version is implied: after you decline, your best accounts move to someone else, your schedule gets worse, or your first negative review in six years appears. Because the harasser used the employer’s authority, the employer is generally strictly liable when the refusal produces a concrete job consequence.

Hostile work environment

The conduct is not tied to a single decision but makes the workplace itself abusive because of your sex or gender. This is where New York’s 2019 change is decisive: under state law you no longer have to show the conduct was severe or pervasive, only that it left you with inferior terms or conditions of employment. Under the New York City Human Rights Law, which by statute is construed more liberally than its federal and state counterparts, the question is whether you were treated less well than other employees because of a protected characteristic.

Which laws protect you, and how do New York and NYC law go further?

Three overlapping statutes apply, and in most Long Island and New York City cases the state and city laws are the stronger ones.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, at employers with 15 or more employees. It requires you to file an administrative charge with the EEOC before suing, uses the severe-or-pervasive standard, and caps combined compensatory and punitive damages between $50,000 and $300,000 depending on employer size.

The New York State Human Rights Law applies to all employers regardless of size, has no damages cap, permits punitive damages in employment cases, allows attorneys’ fees, eliminates the severe-or-pervasive requirement, protects non-employees such as contractors and vendors, and provides that your failure to complain internally is not determinative of your claim.

The New York City Human Rights Law applies where the impact of the conduct is felt in New York City. It is construed independently of and more liberally than federal and state law, has no damages cap, and permits punitive damages. Its “treated less well” standard is the most employee-friendly of the three.

New York also imposes affirmative obligations on employers. Labor Law § 201-g requires every employer in the state to maintain a written sexual harassment prevention policy and provide annual interactive training. When an employer cannot produce its policy, cannot show you were trained, or ignored the complaint procedure in its own handbook, that failure becomes evidence.

Related claims often travel with a harassment case. If you were fired after complaining, see wrongful termination. If the punishment came in another form, see retaliation and whistleblower claims. If the conduct was part of broader unequal treatment, see workplace discrimination.

What do you have to prove in a sexual harassment claim?

You have to prove four things, and the third is where most cases are won or lost.

1. The conduct occurred Documents, messages, and witnesses matter more than recollection.
2. It was because of sex or gender This includes sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and pregnancy. It does not require sexual content.
3. It was unwelcome Employers routinely argue you participated, laughed along, or never objected. Tolerating conduct to keep your job is not consent, and New York law expressly provides that not complaining is not determinative.
4. The employer is legally responsible Where a supervisor’s harassment caused a tangible job consequence, the employer is generally strictly liable. Where a coworker, client, or vendor is the harasser, liability usually turns on whether the employer knew or should have known and failed to take prompt corrective action.

What evidence proves sexual harassment at work?

Contemporaneous records beat memory, and small details beat general descriptions. The evidence that changes case value most often is:

• Texts, DMs, and emails from the harasser Screenshot them, including the sender’s name and the timestamp, and back them up outside company systems.
• Your own written complaint An email to HR or a supervisor creates a dated record of what you said and what the employer knew. If you complained verbally, send a short follow-up email confirming the conversation.
• The employer’s response, or absence of one Investigation notes, the outcome you were told, and how long it took.
• Your personnel file and performance history Strong reviews before your complaint and sudden criticism after it are powerful.
• A dated log Write down each incident: date, time, location, what was said, who was present. Keep it on a personal device, not a work laptop.
• Corroboration Coworkers who saw the conduct, or to whom you described it at the time. Other people the same person harassed are often the single most valuable evidence in the case.
• Medical or therapy records These support emotional distress damages, and the decision to put them at issue should be made deliberately with counsel.

Two cautions. New York permits recording a conversation you are a party to, but your employer’s policies, your professional obligations, and the law of another participant’s state can all complicate that. Ask before you record. And do not take documents you are not authorized to access; talk to a lawyer first about how to preserve what you need without creating a separate problem.

What if the conduct was sexual assault, not just harassment?

If you were assaulted at work, you may have both an employment claim and a separate civil claim against the individual, and the deadlines are different. New York’s CPLR 213-c allows a civil action based on conduct that constitutes a qualifying felony sex offense to be brought within twenty years. Ordinary assault and battery claims, however, can expire within one year, and the employment-law deadlines run on their own schedule.

You can pursue a civil case whether or not you report to the police, and whether or not a prosecutor brings charges. A civil case has a lower burden of proof than a criminal case, so a declined prosecution does not mean you have no claim. If you are considering both, the sequencing matters. Tell your lawyer early so the civil case is built around, not against, any criminal process.

If the assault happened recently and you are safe, preserving physical evidence and getting medical care come before anything legal.

What if you are punished for reporting it?

Retaliation for reporting sexual harassment is separately illegal under federal, state, and city law, and it is protected even if the underlying harassment claim turns out not to succeed. What matters is that you complained in good faith.

Retaliation is broader than firing. It covers any action that would dissuade a reasonable worker from complaining: demotion, pay or hour cuts, an undesirable transfer, exclusion from meetings or projects, a sudden negative review, increased scrutiny, or being written up for conduct that was never an issue before. Under the New York City Human Rights Law the threshold is lower still.

Retaliation claims are frequently stronger than the harassment claim they grow out of, because the sequence is documented: you complained on a date, and the adverse action followed on a date. Employers have a much harder time explaining that timeline than they do disputing what was said in a hallway.

Can your employer force arbitration or silence you with an NDA?

Often, no. Two federal statutes changed the landscape.

The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 gives a person alleging sexual harassment or sexual assault the right to void a pre-dispute arbitration agreement and proceed in court instead. The choice belongs to you, not the employer.

The Speak Out Act limits the enforceability of pre-dispute nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses in sexual harassment and sexual assault disputes, the kind buried in an onboarding packet before anything happened.

New York adds protection at settlement. Under CPLR 5003-b and the parallel provision of the General Obligations Law, a nondisclosure term in the settlement of a harassment or discrimination claim is permitted only where confidentiality is your preference, and the statute builds in a 21-day period to consider the term and a 7-day period to revoke it afterward.

One wrinkle matters in practice. Since S4516 was signed in November 2023, the 21-day consideration period is waivable by the employee in a pre-litigation settlement (the ordinary severance situation), but it remains non-waivable under CPLR 5003-b once a claim has been filed in court. The 7-day revocation right cannot be waived in either setting. So an employer may lawfully ask you to give up the 21 days before suit is filed; whether you should is a different question. The point is that the silence has to be your choice.

If you have already been handed a severance or separation agreement, do not sign before it is reviewed. Once signed, a release usually ends your claims. See severance and employment contracts.

What compensation can you recover in a sexual harassment case?

Damages in a sexual harassment case commonly include:

• Back pay: wages, bonuses, commissions, and benefits lost from the date of the adverse action forward
• Front pay: future lost earnings where returning to the employer is not realistic
• Emotional distress damages: for anxiety, depression, sleep loss, and the disruption the conduct caused, supported by your own testimony and, where appropriate, treatment records
• Punitive damages: available under the New York City Human Rights Law and, since 2019, under the New York State Human Rights Law in employment cases, where the employer’s conduct was willful or showed reckless indifference
• Attorneys’ fees and costs: recoverable under all three statutes, which is what makes these cases economically viable for employees

The damages caps matter. Title VII caps combined compensatory and punitive damages between $50,000 and $300,000 based on employer size. The New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws impose no cap. That single difference drives where most New York harassment cases are filed and how they are valued.

Every case is different, and no lawyer can tell you what your case is worth before seeing the facts. What a lawyer can do early is tell you which statutes apply, what the realistic range of outcomes looks like, and what your deadlines are.

What to do right now if this is happening to you

1. Write down what has happened, with dates Do it now, while the details are precise, and keep the document on a personal device.
2. Preserve messages before you lose access Screenshot texts, DMs, and emails. Forward what you are permitted to forward to a personal account. Company accounts are shut off the moment employment ends.
3. Put your complaint in writing A short factual email to HR or a supervisor creates a dated record and starts the employer’s obligation to act. If you already complained verbally, follow up in writing to confirm it.
4. Do not sign anything Severance agreements, separation agreements, and “acknowledgments” routinely release every claim you have.
5. Do not resign before getting advice Quitting can complicate back-pay damages. There are situations where resignation is the right call, but it should be a decision, not a reaction.
6. Get medical or mental health care if you need it Your health comes first, and treatment records also support a damages claim later.
7. Note your deadlines The 300-day EEOC clock is the one that catches people, and it runs from the conduct, not from when you learn about it.
8. Talk to an employment lawyer A consultation is confidential and free, and it does not commit you to filing anything.

If you reported the harassment internally and were punished for it, our guide to being fired after complaining to HR explains why that sequence is often the stronger claim. If you work in the five boroughs, see also why the NYC Human Rights Law protects you more than federal law.

How we handle sexual harassment cases

We represent employees and executives in the great majority of our matters, and employers in a limited number of them. We run a conflict check before taking any case. That matters in this practice area because the defense playbook is predictable: attack whether the conduct was unwelcome, argue you never complained, produce a policy no one followed, and point to an investigation that reached the conclusion the company wanted.

Tim Alamgir spent years defending employers inside an AmLaw 200 labor and employment practice before moving to the employee side, and that experience shapes how these cases are built: what the other side’s counsel will look for, how they value exposure, and where their defenses break down.

Most cases resolve before trial, but they resolve better when they are built to be tried. We prepare them that way. When litigation is necessary, we handle it in state and federal court. See employment litigation for how that process works.

Fee arrangements depend on the matter. Many employee-side cases are handled on a contingency fee basis, where there is no fee unless we recover for you and case costs and disbursements are advanced by the firm and reimbursed from any recovery. Other matters are handled on a retainer, and we tell you in writing which applies before you commit to anything. The initial consultation is always free and confidential. You can reach us at 631.498.7984 or through the contact page.