California SB 1343: Sexual Harassment Training Hours, Content, and Records

California’s SB 1343 sexual harassment training requirements apply to every employer with five or more workers and set two separate training tracks: at least one hour of interactive training for non-supervisory employees and at least two hours for supervisors, repeated every two years. The rules are codified in Government Code section 12950.1 and enforced by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD).¹

Which Employers Are Covered

The five-employee threshold counts everyone on your payroll, including part-time, temporary, and seasonal staff, plus independent contractors who regularly provide services to your business. The headcount is national, not just California. If your company has five or more workers anywhere in the country, you must train your California-based employees, even if fewer than five of them actually work in California. The CRD employer FAQ states the obligation applies “so long as it employs 5 or more employees anywhere.”²

Remote workers follow their location. If an employee physically works in California, they need California-compliant training regardless of where your company is headquartered.² Multistate employers should map each worker to the state where they actually perform the job, since several other states have their own training mandates with different content and hour rules.

Classification matters within your workforce too. For training purposes, a supervisor is anyone with authority to hire, fire, promote, discipline, assign, reward, or direct another employee’s daily work.³ Supervisors owe the longer training and carry personal liability for harassment they commit, so misclassifying them is a real risk.

Hours and Deadlines

The hour minimums are fixed:

Supervisors: at least two hours of interactive training.
Non-supervisory employees: at least one hour of interactive training.

Both groups retrain every two years. You can track that on an individual basis, counting two years from each person’s last training date, or pick a company-wide “training year” and retrain everyone by the end of the next training year two years later.⁴

New hires have their own clocks:

New non-supervisory employees: within six months of hire.
New supervisors: within six months of assuming the supervisory role.
Temporary or seasonal employees hired for less than six months: within 30 calendar days of hire or 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.²

That seasonal rule catches employers off guard. A worker you bring on for a three-month holiday rush still needs training, on a far shorter runway than a permanent hire gets.

What the Training Must Cover

Content is prescribed by statute. Your program must include:

Federal and state harassment law, including the prohibitions, prevention and correction obligations, and remedies available to victims.
Practical examples that help employees, especially supervisors, recognize and prevent harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in real workplace situations.
Abusive conduct, which California defines as workplace behavior carried out with malice that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to legitimate business interests. A single act generally doesn’t qualify unless it’s especially severe.
Harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, with practical examples, delivered by trainers with expertise in those areas.¹

Many off-the-shelf programs still handle the abusive conduct and gender identity pieces thinly. If a vendor’s materials don’t substantively cover both, you’re not in compliance even if everything else is checked off.

How the Training Can Be Delivered

The statute requires “classroom or other effective interactive training.” Passive video watching or a pamphlet handoff won’t satisfy it. Acceptable formats include in-person classroom sessions, live webinars, and e-learning. E-learning programs must let participants submit questions and receive answers from a qualified trainer within two business days. You can also combine scenario discussion with skill-building exercises.⁴

Training doesn’t have to happen in one sitting, and employees can complete it alone or in groups. It can be bundled with other required workplace training. It must be provided in a language the employee understands. The CRD offers its own free online courses in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.⁵

Who Can Lead the Training

Trainers need the knowledge to cover the full required scope: FEHA definitions, identifying unlawful behavior, complaint procedures, investigation obligations, and retaliation prevention. In addition, a qualified trainer must fall into at least one of these categories:

Attorneys licensed for at least two years in any U.S. state whose practice includes employment law under FEHA or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
HR professionals or harassment prevention consultants with at least two years of practical experience designing or conducting harassment prevention training, handling complaints, conducting investigations, or advising on discrimination and harassment prevention.
Law school, college, or university professors or instructors with either 20 instruction hours or two years of experience teaching employment law under FEHA or Title VII.⁴

Someone who doesn’t meet those criteria can co-teach, but only under the direct supervision of a fully qualified trainer who remains present. You can also use multiple trainers who collectively cover the required qualifications.

Records You Have to Keep

Training records must be retained for at least two years. They should include the names of all employees trained, the date of training, any sign-in sheets, copies of certificates of completion, the type of training, copies of all written or recorded training materials, and the name of the provider.²

For e-learning and webinars, trainers must also retain all written questions received and all responses provided for two years from the date of the response. For webinars, employers must keep a copy of the webinar itself along with all written materials used.⁴ Those records are your proof. If a complaint triggers a CRD investigation or a lawsuit, documentation is the first thing an investigator asks for.

What Happens If You Don’t Comply

Enforcement sits with the CRD, the same agency formerly known as the DFEH before its 2022 rename. When the CRD finds that an employer skipped the required training, it can seek a court order compelling compliance.¹ Investigations open from employee complaints or broader compliance reviews.

The statute says failure to train, by itself, doesn’t make an employer liable to an employee in a lawsuit.¹ That’s less reassuring than it sounds. FEHA separately requires employers to take “all reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring.”³ When an actual harassment claim lands, missing training records undercut the employer’s main defense. Remedies available to a prevailing employee under FEHA include back pay, front pay, reinstatement, damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorney fees and costs.⁶

A Short Compliance Checklist

Once the pieces are laid out, the compliance work is manageable:

Confirm your headcount hits five, including contractors.
Classify every worker as supervisory or non-supervisory.
Pick a delivery method that is genuinely interactive and covers every mandatory content area, including abusive conduct and gender identity.
Verify the trainer meets the qualification rules.
Set up tracking, either individual-based or built around a company training year, so no one slips past the two-year mark.
Build a fast-track onboarding path for seasonal and temporary hires, since their window is 30 days or 100 hours.

Employers looking to meet the minimum without hiring a vendor can use the CRD’s free online courses. Larger organizations often prefer customized programs that work through scenarios specific to their own workplace.

1
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12950.1
2
Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training For Employers FAQ
3
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12940
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. California Code of Regulations Title 2 Section 11024 – Required Training and Education Regarding Harassment
5
California Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
6
Civil Rights Department. Employment