Maryland Sexual Harassment Training Requirements: Deadlines and Penalties

Maryland’s sexual harassment training requirements apply to state government: every employee in the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches must complete at least two hours of interactive training within six months of being hired, and again at least once every two years after that.¹ Private employers in Maryland are not required by state law to provide this training, but they can still be held liable for workplace harassment with as few as one employee on the payroll.

Who the Training Mandate Covers

The rule, codified at State Personnel and Pensions § 2-203.1, reaches every unit of Maryland state government, including agencies that run their own independent personnel systems. It applies to all employees in those units regardless of rank. The statute also specifically names the constituent institutions of the University System of Maryland, Morgan State University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland.¹

Private-sector employers sit outside the mandate. They still face harassment liability under Maryland’s anti-discrimination law, which prohibits any employer from engaging in workplace harassment and applies to employers with just a single employee when the complaint alleges harassment.² That threshold is far lower than the 15-employee minimum that governs most discrimination claims.

What the Training Must Cover

The statute identifies four content categories. Sessions must address the federal and state laws that prohibit sexual harassment, best practices for preventing and correcting harassment and retaliation, and the remedies and complaint procedures available to anyone who experiences it.¹ Employees should leave understanding what counts as harassment, how to report it internally, and how to bring a complaint to the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Supervisors get an additional layer. Their training must also address how to respond to complaints properly, how to prevent further abuse and retaliation, and how to build a workplace culture that does not tolerate harassment.¹ A supervisor who ignores a report sharply increases the agency’s exposure, which is why the law treats their curriculum differently.

The content ties back to the definition of “sexual harassment” in State Government § 20-601, keeping the training aligned with the standard used in actual discrimination complaints.

Format, Hours, and Interactivity

Passive materials do not satisfy the law. Agencies must deliver at least two cumulative hours of in-person or virtual training that is interactive.¹ Interactivity means participants engage with the material through live Q&A, scenario discussions, or similar methods rather than sitting through a one-way presentation.

Higher education gets more flexibility. The University System of Maryland, Morgan State University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland may deliver the training by webinar, computer-based, or online formats. When they do, the course must include an evaluative component confirming that employees actually engaged with the content and absorbed the key objectives.³ A 2024 amendment extended this online option to Morgan State and St. Mary’s; previously they were limited to in-person or virtual sessions.

When Training Must Happen

New state employees have six months from their appointment to complete the initial training. After that, every state employee must go through refresher training at least once in each two-year period.¹

Appointing authorities also have discretion to require an employee to retake part or all of the training, or to complete additional classes, whenever they determine it is necessary. That provision lets agencies respond when conduct suggests the earlier session did not land, or when a specific incident calls for targeted follow-up.

How Agencies Run the Program

Each unit of state government must designate a representative to coordinate training with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, and the Commission trains those designated representatives in harassment prevention, discrimination, retaliation, and best practices.¹ The train-the-trainer structure produces some consistency across agencies even though each unit chooses how to deliver sessions to its own workforce.

Agencies can fold the training into existing onboarding for new hires and new supervisors rather than running a separate session. The statute encourages designated representatives to draw on EEOC materials when building their curricula.⁴

Enforcement and the Real Cost of Skipping It

For Executive Branch agencies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator enforces the training requirements. If the Coordinator finds that a unit has not complied, they can recommend that the Legislative Auditor, the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, or the Executive Director of the Department of Legislative Services direct a performance audit or review of that unit.³ The statute sets no dollar penalties.

The practical cost shows up later. An agency that cannot document consistent training has lost one of the strongest defenses available when a harassment claim surfaces. Documented sessions demonstrate good faith; their absence puts the agency on worse footing in front of the Commission or a court.

Private Employers in Maryland

No state statute requires private businesses in Maryland to provide sexual harassment training. The anti-harassment rule in State Government § 20-606 does bar every employer from engaging in harassment and from retaliating against anyone who files a complaint or participates in an investigation.⁵ Because the harassment provision reaches employers with a single worker, nearly every business in the state can face a claim.⁶

The EEOC encourages all employers to run regular, interactive, comprehensive prevention training.⁴ Private employers that follow the state’s two-hour, biennial model are adopting a framework the legislature has already vetted, and they build the paper trail that strengthens any later defense.

Recordkeeping

Section 2-203.1 does not spell out recordkeeping obligations. It does not require agencies to log employee names, dates, or curricula. The only way to prove the training happened, though, is to document it, so every agency should keep those records as a matter of basic compliance.

Federal regulations set a floor. Under 29 CFR § 1602.14, private employers must preserve personnel and employment records, including records related to selection for training, for at least one year from the date the record was made or the personnel action occurred, whichever is later.⁷ State and local government employers must hold records for two years under the same regulation.⁸ If a discrimination charge is filed, all relevant personnel records must be preserved until the matter is resolved.

Many employers hold training records well beyond the minimum. A harassment claim can surface years after a session, and records that stretch back further than the federal floor often decide whether a defense holds together.

If You Need to File a Complaint

If you are reading this because you want to report harassment rather than learn the training rules, the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights accepts complaints through a Preliminary Questionnaire available online, by email, by fax, or by mail. Workplace harassment complaints must be filed within two years of the day the alleged harassment occurred.⁹ You can also file with the EEOC, and the two agencies share work on dual-filed charges.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland State Personnel and Pensions Code Section 2-203.1
2
Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. Employment
3
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code State Personnel and Pensions 2-203.1
4
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Promising Practices for Preventing Harassment in the Federal Sector
5
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland State Government Code Section 20-606 – Unlawful Employment Practices
6
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code State Government 20-601
7
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1602 Subpart C – Recordkeeping by Employers
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Summary of Selected Recordkeeping Obligations in 29 CFR Part 1602
9
Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. Start a Complaint Inquiry