There is no single federal mandate requiring private employers to conduct workplace harassment training, meaning rules are set entirely by state and local laws.
A handful of states—including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York—mandate private-sector sexual harassment trainings, while others require it only for state workers or specific industries.
State-Mandated Private Sector Training
- California: Mandates 1 hour for nonsupervisory employees and 2 hours for supervisors every 2 years for employers with 5 or more workers.
- Connecticut: Requires 2 hours of training for all employers with 3 or more employees, plus all state employees.
- Delaware: Requires interactive training for employers with 50 or more employees.
- New York & Illinois: Require annual sexual harassment prevention training for all employees meeting state-specified interactive standards.
- Maine: Requires training for employers with 15 or more employees within a year of hire.
Who Must Receive It
- Supervisors and Managers: Subject to stricter, longer, or more frequent training sessions across all mandated states.
- All Employees: Required to receive baseline prevention training in states with universal private-sector mandates.
- Specific Industries: States like Washington mandate targeted training for isolated workers (such as hotel staff or janitors), and Washington, D.C. requires specialized training for businesses employing tipped workers.
You can review a comprehensive breakdown of rules through the State-by-State Guide to Sexual Harassment Training Laws provided by Shannon Ongaro on the deel.com website.
PS: You may want to consider adding DEI information to your harassment trainings, especially for managers and hiring teams (or do separate DEI based trainings). This is a hot topic that is quickly shifting gears based on court cases. Check out these websites and be sure to follow an Employment Attorney’s newsletter in the state/ states that you operate in. https://www.cbsnews.com/tag/dei/ and https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/elimination-of-federal-diversity-initiatives-updates-and-current-status/
