Sexual Assault at Work: What the Statistics Show for California

When a sexual assault happens at work or because of work, the law treats it as the most severe form of sexual harassment and, separately, as a battery. Neither the EEOC nor the California Civil Rights Department keeps a line item for assault. The claims sit inside the hostile environment and quid pro quo counts on our sexual harassment page, which is why this page leans on survey data and on the way these cases actually resolve.

What the surveys measure

The 2018 national study commissioned by Stop Street Harassment asked a representative sample of 2,000 adults about lifetime experiences in any setting, not only at work. It found 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault. Verbal harassment was the most common form, 77 percent of women and 34 percent of men. Unwelcome touching or groping was reported by 51 percent of women and 17 percent of men, and sexual assault by 27 percent of women and 7 percent of men.

The EEOC task force reviewed the research on workplace conduct specifically. When workers were asked about specific behaviors such as unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion rather than the label sexual harassment, about 60 percent of women said yes in representative samples. Among transgender workers in a large survey, 50 percent reported harassment at work and 6 percent reported being sexually assaulted at work.

Where the California cases show up

A workplace sexual assault in California produces a hostile environment claim under the Fair Employment and Housing Act, and usually a retaliation claim once the employer reacts. In the CRD data those claims are part of the 6,787 hostile environment and 2,730 quid pro quo right to sue filings recorded in 2024. The retaliation count is separate: 11,837 right to sue filings in 2024 alleged retaliation for reporting or resisting discrimination or harassment, the single most common basis in the state.

That case illustrates the pattern we see most often. The employer treats the assault as a private matter between two people, removes the attacker, and then quietly removes the victim. The employment claim is not only about the assault. It is about what the company did next.

Two sets of law, two deadlines

A sexual assault connected to work gives rise to claims under employment law and under general civil law, and they run on different clocks.

The criminal case, if there is one, is separate and is run by the district attorney. You do not need a police report to bring the civil or employment claims, though a report helps, and nothing in the criminal process stops the civil clock.

What these numbers mean if it happened to you

• Off site does not mean off the hook. Conduct at a work party, an after hours gathering that started at work, a business trip or a client dinner is routinely treated as work related.
• Report it in writing to someone above the attacker. The retaliation claim depends on the employer knowing you reported.
• Preserve messages, calendar entries, ride receipts and the names of everyone who was there.
• Emotional distress damages are uncapped in California, and punitive damages are available against an employer that knew and failed to act.
• You can bring the employment claims and the civil battery claims in the same lawsuit.

Sources

The figures on this page were taken from the following publications, as released by the agencies. Percentages, changes, sums and rates per 100,000 workers are our own arithmetic from those figures.

• Stop Street Harassment, 2018 national study on sexual harassment and assault, stopstreetharassment.org
• EEOC, Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, 2016 report, www.eeoc.gov
• California Civil Rights Department, 2024 Annual Report (complaint tables and county appendix), calcivilrights.ca.gov

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