Researchers at Cornell's ILR School have just released a new report that provides significant, in-depth details regarding who experiences workplace harassment in New York State. The report follows closely on the heels of the state's recent legislative reforms to its anti-harassment laws, which were signed into law by Governor Cuomo in August. As we highlighted in June, several of the bill's key components include new mechanisms for reporting workplace harassment, extending the statute of limitations for reporting workplace harassment, and ensuring employers provide sufficient anti-harassment training.
The researchers, Sanjay Pinto, K.C. Wagner, and Zoë West, utilized data from the Cornell Survey Research Institute's 2018 Empire State Poll that surveyed 800 workers from across the state. According to the findings of the report, at some point in their careers, one in ten New Yorkers, or 1.7 million people, experienced quid pro quo workplace sexual harassment, which is defined as “someone in a position of authority at [their] workplace trying to trade job benefits for sexual favors.” Of those, more than one in five reported it led to a hostile work environment. The survey also revealed fine-grained data about who is targeted for such quid pro quos, shed new light on the extent of the problem in the state, and highlighted crucial efforts by survivors and activists to address these structural issues through legislative, legal, and cultural methods.
Other major findings in the report include
