Is Workplace Sexual Harassment Getting Better? The Reality Check We Need in 2025
We’ve all sat through the annual compliance trainings. We’ve nodded along to the “zero tolerance” policies printed in the employee handbook. But here’s the uncomfortable truth the data reveals in 2025: workplace sexual harassment isn’t disappearing; it’s merely evolving in form and demanding a higher price for accountability.
While public discourse and high-profile legal action suggest we are making progress, a deeper look shows that we are only achieving marginal gains, primarily driven by the immense courage of survivors and the rising financial cost of corporate inaction. We are not yet solving the underlying cultural problem.
What’s Actually Happening: The Reporting Surge
The narrative that sexual harassment is declining is not fully supported by current data. Instead, accountability and reporting are up, while the underlying prevalence remains high.
- More People Are Reporting Than Ever Before: Charge filings with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have surged, with overall discrimination charges increasing by over 9% in Fiscal Year 2024. This trend signals that employees are finally overcoming the fear of silence and seeking external recourse.
- Companies Are Paying Real Consequences: Financial penalties are becoming serious. In FY 2024, the EEOC secured its highest monetary recovery in recent history for victims of employment discrimination (nearly $700 million). This punitive action makes inaction an increasingly prohibitive financial risk for employers.
- Bans on Secret Settlements Are Creating Transparency: New legislation banning the use of non disclosure agreements (NDAs) in harassment cases is forcing critical transparency, preventing companies from concealing repeated misconduct, and empowering victims to share their stories without legal penalty.
The Uncomfortable Truth: The Gaps in Accountability
Despite these hopeful numbers, most incidents still go unpunished and unreported, and the nature of work itself is creating new challenges:
- Most Incidents Still Go Unreported: Studies consistently show that up to 72% of victims do not report sexual harassment internally. This is driven by a deep seated fear of retaliation, which remains the most prevalent type of charge filed with the EEOC.
- Remote Work Created New Harassment Avenues: The shift to remote and hybrid work has not reduced harassment. Instead, it has simply relocated it to digital platforms. Workplace technology facilitated sexual harassment (WTFSH) occurs through chat apps, emails, and video calls, blurring professional boundaries and leaving victims feeling isolated and unsure of how to report digital offenses.
- Vulnerable Workers Still Face the Most Risk: The risk is not distributed equally. Younger employees (ages 15 to 34), low wage earners, and workers in precarious employment situations consistently report the highest rates of harassment. Harassers often exploit the lack of job security and resources among these groups.
- Leadership Often Gets a Pass: Many organizations focus their enforcement efforts on lower level staff while failing to hold senior leadership accountable first. This failure at the top undermines the credibility of the entire anti harassment policy and creates a culture where power protects perpetrators.
Progress or Just Better PR?
The positive shifts we observe are largely a result of external pressure and legal forces, not internal ethical enlightenment.
Signs of Hope | The Reality |
People are finally speaking up. | Fear of retaliation keeps most people silent. |
Financial penalties are getting serious. | Vulnerable workers still face the most systemic risk. |
Bans on secret settlements are creating transparency. | Leadership often gets a pass while everyone else gets “trained.” |
The Bottom Line: Is it getting better? Marginally. Are we solving it? Not even close.
The true, hard-earned progress we are seeing is not due to better policies being written; it’s from a collective cultural shift driven by people refusing to stay silent and legal systems ensuring companies face real, financial consequences.
What Actually Works: Beyond the Policy Checklist
To achieve genuine cultural change and accelerate improvement, organizations must commit to radical transparency and consistent accountability, starting at the top:
- Make Training Ongoing and Relevant: Training must be continuous, scenario based, and explicitly address digital and virtual harassment that occurs across all platforms. Annual, passive checklists are no longer sufficient.
- Create Reporting Channels People Actually Trust: Implement anonymous or third party reporting systems and ensure victims are protected and supported throughout the entire process. The primary focus must shift from protecting the company to protecting the victim.
- Hold Leadership Accountable First: Establish the principle that no one is above the policy. Swiftly and visibly scrutinize the actions of managers and executives, as integrity at the top dictates culture throughout the organization.
- Support Victims with Zero Tolerance for Retaliation: Any form of retaliation against a reporter or witness must be met with immediate and severe disciplinary action. The safety and career continuity of the reporter must be the first priority.
- Build Cultures of Safety: Cultivate an environment where speaking up is seen as an act of integrity that does not end careers, but rather sustains the ethical health of the workplace for everyone.
The challenge for 2025 isn’t about perfecting a legal document. It’s about creating workplaces where every person feels safe enough to call out bad behavior and knows that something meaningful will actually happen.
Your turn: What’s one thing YOUR workplace could do better?
