Workplace harassment in California is wider than most people think, and narrower than they fear. Wider, because it is not only sexual, and because the protection reaches a workplace with a single employee. Narrower, because a boss who is simply unpleasant has not broken the law. What turns bad treatment into unlawful harassment is a connection to who you are.
This page explains that line, what the law requires your employer to do, and what to do next. If the conduct you are dealing with is sexual, our full California sexual harassment guide goes much deeper.
What counts as harassment under California law
Harassment is unwelcome conduct directed at you because of a protected characteristic, that either becomes a condition of keeping your job or is severe or pervasive enough to change the conditions you work under.
Two things in that sentence do the work. The conduct has to be unwelcome, and it has to be connected to a protected characteristic. Remove the connection and you have a workplace problem rather than a legal claim. Remove the unwelcomeness and you have ordinary workplace banter that nobody objected to.
Severe or pervasive, not severe and pervasive
People assume they need to show a long campaign. The standard is either. A single act can be enough if it is serious enough. A stream of smaller incidents can be enough through accumulation even though no single one would be.
California tightened this in 2019. Government Code section 12923 states that a single incident can be enough to create a triable issue, that harassment cases are rarely appropriate for disposal before trial, and that a workplace cannot defend itself by pointing to a culture where this sort of thing is normal. A history of coarse talk is not a license.
The test is a reasonable person in your position
Not the most sensitive imaginable worker, and not a vote among colleagues about whether they personally minded. The question is how a reasonable person in your circumstances would experience it, and your circumstances include the power the other person held over your job, where it happened and how often.
The characteristics California protects
Harassment is unlawful when it is because of any of these:
- Race, color
- Ancestry, national origin
- Religion, creed
- Age, 40 and over
- Disability, mental and physical
- Sex and gender, including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity and gender expression
- Medical condition
- Genetic information
- Marital status
- Military or veteran status
- Reproductive health decision-making
The list matters because the claim stands or falls on it. Mockery of your accent is tied to national origin. Jokes about your hearing aid are tied to disability. Being called too old for the shift pattern is tied to age. The same remarks aimed at nothing in particular may be unpleasant without being unlawful.
Harassment, or just a difficult manager?
This is the question that brings most people to this page, so here is the honest answer. California has no general law against workplace bullying. A manager can be demanding, unfair, cold, inconsistent and wrong, and none of that is itself illegal.
What changes it:
| Situation | Likely a legal claim? |
|---|---|
| A supervisor shouts at everyone equally | No, unless something ties it to a protected characteristic |
| A supervisor shouts only at the women on the team | Yes, the pattern supplies the connection |
| Harsh performance criticism | No, on its own |
| Harsh criticism mixed with remarks about your accent or your age | Yes, and keep both halves of the exchange |
| Being excluded from meetings | Depends on why, and who else is excluded |
| Treatment that worsened after you complained | Potentially retaliation, which is its own claim |
One warning in the other direction. A supervisor cannot make sex-based or race-based insults disappear by wrapping them in a performance conversation. If both are in the same meeting, record both.
The forms workplace harassment takes
Conduct aimed at a protected characteristic
Slurs, mockery, offensive jokes, imagery, nicknames, mimicry of an accent, comments about a disability, repeated questions about someone's gender or religion, and deliberate patterns around a person's name or pronouns.
Sexual harassment
Two recognized shapes. A demand that trades a job benefit for sexual conduct, and a hostile environment built from unwanted sexual attention, comments or imagery. Our sexual harassment guide covers both, along with deadlines, evidence and what claims are worth.
Harassment by people who are not your colleagues
Customers, clients, patients, vendors and contractors. The employer is not excused because the person does not work for them. We cover this in harassment by a customer or client.
Harassment through a screen
Messages, email, video calls and social media can all carry it, and a personal phone does not make a work-related exchange private. See harassment over Zoom, Slack and email.
Conduct aimed at someone else
What is directed at a colleague can contribute to the environment you work in, if you knew about it and it affected your work. Say what you personally saw or heard, and when.
Who is protected, and at what size of employer
This is the detail that surprises people most, and it is worth stating plainly.
Discrimination rules under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act generally apply to employers with five or more employees. Harassment is prohibited in all workplaces, even those with only one employee or independent contractor.
The protection also reaches beyond employees. It covers applicants, unpaid interns, volunteers and contractors. And it applies regardless of immigration status: California law preserves employment protections whatever a worker's status, and the Civil Rights Department does not ask about it.
When your employer is responsible
Who did it decides the test.
A supervisor. The employer is strictly liable. It does not matter whether anyone in management knew. The authority the employer handed that person is the point.
A coworker. Liability depends on knowledge and response. If the employer knew or should have known and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action, it is responsible.
A customer or other third party. The same knowledge-and-response test. This is why the written report matters so much: it creates the knowledge.
There is also a separate duty. Government Code section 12940(k) requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment from happening at all. Failing that is its own violation.
What your employer was already required to have
Before anything happened to you, the law required a system to be in place. Its absence is useful evidence.
- A written prevention policy with a complaint route that does not force you to complain to your own supervisor.
- A process providing a timely response, impartial and timely investigation by qualified people, tracking of progress, and a timely close.
- Translation of the policy where at least ten percent of the workforce at a location speaks another language.
- Required postings, and harassment prevention information for employees.
- Training, for employers of five or more: two hours for supervisors and one hour for everyone else, every two years, paid and on work time.
If you were never trained, never saw a policy, or could not find anyone to complain to other than the person causing the problem, write that down.
Reporting it so the report counts
Use the route in the policy. If it points at the person involved, use another listed contact. Put it in writing, even after a conversation, so the date and content are provable.
Subject: Harassment complaint
I am reporting conduct by [name]. On [date and place], [what was said or done]. [Names] may have seen or heard it. I have [messages, photographs or other evidence]. Please confirm receipt, preserve relevant records, and tell me who will handle this. I am asking for steps to stop the conduct and to prevent retaliation.
Then request your records. Your personnel file must be produced within 30 days of a written request under Labor Code section 1198.5, and your pay records within 21 days under section 226. Those are separate requests on separate clocks, and both are worth making early.
More detail: how to document workplace harassment and how long HR has to investigate.
The deadlines that matter
| Step | Time limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint to the Civil Rights Department | Three years from the unlawful act | Required before a FEHA lawsuit. Does not pause while HR investigates. |
| Charge with the EEOC | Generally 300 days in California | Much shorter. Federal law generally covers employers with 15 or more employees. |
| Suing after a right to sue notice | One year from the state notice | The federal notice carries its own 90 day period. |
| Personnel records request | 30 days, 35 by agreement | Labor Code section 1198.5. |
| Pay records request | 21 days | Labor Code section 226. |
You do not have to wait for an internal investigation to end before filing. The two processes are independent, and the agency clock keeps running.
If they punish you for reporting
Retaliation is a separate claim with its own remedies, and it is often easier to prove than the harassment itself because the timing does much of the work.
It covers firing, demotion, cut hours, a worse schedule, a sudden write-up, exclusion, or a transfer you did not ask for. It also protects people who support someone else's complaint or act as a witness.
For complaints protected by Labor Code section 98.6, an adverse action within ninety days of the protected activity is presumed retaliatory under SB 497, and the employer has to explain itself. Record what you reported, who knew, and what changed afterward.
More: workplace retaliation in California.
What a harassment claim is worth
California does not cap compensatory or punitive damages in these cases the way federal law does. What is available includes past and future lost earnings, out-of-pocket losses, emotional distress, punitive damages where the conduct justifies them, and attorney's fees.
What any individual case is worth depends on the conduct, how the employer responded, what it cost you in work and health, and the evidence. Be skeptical of any figure quoted before someone has read your documents.
Related reading: California hostile work environment laws, verbal, physical and visual harassment, inappropriate comments and innuendo, the types of sexual harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and nonverbal, visual and online harassment.
Questions people ask
Not by itself. California has no general law against bullying. It becomes unlawful harassment when the treatment is connected to a protected characteristic such as sex, race, age, disability, religion or national origin. The same conduct aimed at everyone equally is usually a management problem rather than a legal claim.
Yes. Harassment is prohibited in all California workplaces, even those with only one employee or independent contractor. The five employee threshold applies to discrimination claims, not to harassment.
One incident can be enough if it is serious enough. California's Government Code section 12923 states that a single incident can be sufficient to create a triable issue. A series of smaller incidents can also qualify through accumulation. The standard is severe or pervasive, not both.
No. Harassment by customers, clients, patients, vendors and contractors is covered. The employer's responsibility turns on what it knew and what it did about it, which is why a written report matters so much in these situations.
Yes for harassment. California's protection extends to employees, applicants, unpaid interns, volunteers and contractors. Whether you are correctly classified as a contractor is a separate question that may be worth asking at the same time.
California's employment protections apply regardless of immigration status, and the Civil Rights Department does not ask about it. A threat to report you or your family after you assert workplace rights should be written down separately, with the exact words and the date.
Yes. Having authority over the person does not remove your protection. Report through a route that can investigate fairly, and record why using your own disciplinary authority would not resolve it, especially if another manager is protecting them.
A delay does not end your claim. Explain it honestly: fear of retaliation, a confusing policy, earlier complaints that went nowhere, or the harasser's authority. The employer may argue that an earlier report would have prevented some of the harm, which affects damages rather than acting as an automatic defense to supervisor harassment. Your filing deadlines are a separate calculation.
California allows personal liability for harassment, which is different from discrimination claims where liability generally rests with the employer. Whether to name an individual is a tactical decision worth discussing rather than assuming either way.
Three years to file with the Civil Rights Department, generally 300 days for an EEOC charge in California, and one year to sue after a state right to sue notice. Those run on their own and do not wait for an internal investigation to finish.
Where to go from here
If the conduct is sexual, start with the California sexual harassment guide, which covers evidence, deadlines, arbitration, settlements and what claims are worth. If it is about a hostile environment more generally, see hostile work environment. If the trouble started after you complained, see retaliation.
A free review will tell you whether what happened crosses the legal line, what your real deadlines are, and what to do first. Nothing is reported to your employer. Call (800) 371-3088 or send what you have.
Sources
- California Civil Rights Department, Employment: the protected characteristics, the five employee threshold for discrimination, harassment prohibited in all workplaces including those with one employee or contractor, and available remedies.
- California Civil Rights Department, Sexual Harassment: The Facts: Government Code section 12940, coverage of non-employees, and personal liability.
- California Civil Rights Department, Harassment Prevention Guide (March 2025): investigations, corrective action and employer response.
- California Code of Regulations, title 2, section 11023, prevention regulations: the required policy, complaint route, translation duty and timeliness standards.
- Government Code section 12923, statutory text reproduced in the Civil Rights Department's appellate filing: a single incident can suffice, and a workplace culture of sexual commentary is no exemption.
- California Civil Rights Department, Workplace Retaliation Is Against the Law: protected activity and remedies under Government Code section 12940(h).
- California Department of Industrial Relations, Personnel Files and Records: Labor Code sections 1198.5 and 226 and their 30 day and 21 day periods.
- California Department of Industrial Relations, Laws Prohibiting Retaliation and Discrimination: Labor Code sections 98.6, 1102.5 and 1197.5, and the SB 497 presumption.
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Time Limits for Filing a Charge: the 300 day deadline applicable in California.
- California Civil Rights Department, Sexual Harassment Prevention Training: Information for Employers: the two hour and one hour requirements, the two year cycle, and paid work time.
Legal Disclaimer: This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Employment law is complex and fact-specific. The information on this page reflects California law as of 2026 and may change. If you believe your rights have been violated, please consult a licensed California employment attorney to evaluate your specific situation.