NYS Sexual Harassment Training Requirements for Employers

New York State sexual harassment training requirements apply to every employer in the state, with no exception for small businesses. Under Labor Law Section 201-g, you must provide interactive sexual harassment prevention training to all employees once a year and maintain a written prevention policy that meets or exceeds the state’s model.¹ You can use the free state materials or build your own program, as long as your version hits the statutory minimums.

Which Employers and Workers Are Covered

There is no small-business exemption. A sole proprietor with one employee is held to the same standard as a corporation with thousands.¹

The training obligation reaches every employee on your payroll: full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary. Employers who lean on short-term or seasonal staff sometimes assume those workers fall outside the rule. They don’t.

New York’s Human Rights Law also protects non-employees from workplace harassment. Contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, gig workers, and temporary staffing agency workers are covered when they perform services in your workplace.² The annual Section 201-g training mandate itself applies to your employees, but many employers extend the training to non-employees who regularly work at their location because the harassment protections apply to those people either way.

Out-of-State and Remote Workers

Workers based outside New York who never actually perform work in the state are generally exempt. If an out-of-state employee occasionally travels to New York for business, they should complete the training. Employers bidding on state contracts should note that all employees may need to be trained regardless of where they work. New York City takes a broader view, discussed below.

What the Training Must Cover

The statute sets four minimum content areas that every program must address, whether you use the state’s model or your own materials.¹

An explanation of sexual harassment consistent with guidance from the Department of Labor and the Division of Human Rights, framing it as unlawful discrimination under federal and state law.
Concrete examples of prohibited conduct, from unwelcome comments and requests to physical conduct that creates a hostile work environment.
An overview of federal and state legal protections, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New York State Human Rights Law, and the remedies available to victims.
Information on how employees can file a complaint, including internal procedures, the New York State Division of Human Rights, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the courts.

The state’s model training, updated in 2022, goes past these minimums and adds topics like bystander intervention.³ Bystander intervention isn’t a strict statutory requirement, but it’s built into the free state materials most employers use.

Extra Content for Supervisors

The statute requires that training address the conduct and responsibilities of supervisors specifically.¹ The written policy must state that sanctions will be enforced against supervisory and managerial personnel who knowingly allow harassment to continue. A manager who knows about harassment and does nothing faces personal accountability, not only the company. Training should make clear that supervisors have to escalate reports promptly and cannot wait for a formal written complaint.

How Often You Have to Train

Training has to be provided on an annual basis to every employee.¹ The statute doesn’t lock in a specific date, and most employers run a calendar-year cycle. The rule to follow is simple: no employee goes more than a year without completing the program.

New hires are a timing question the statute leaves partly open. The law requires that the written policy and training information be given at the time of hiring, but it doesn’t set a hard deadline for completing the interactive training itself. The practical approach most employers take is to include the training in onboarding during the first week or two. An employee who starts in November and doesn’t get trained until the following November has a nearly year-long gap where they had no education on their rights or the company’s complaint process.

What “Interactive” Actually Means

The training must be interactive, and this is where employers most often fall short. Playing a pre-recorded video while employees eat lunch doesn’t count. The program needs a way for participants to ask questions and get answers, whether through a live facilitator, a chat feature in an online module, or knowledge checks that require the employee to engage with the material before moving forward.¹

The state’s own online training module takes roughly 45 minutes to complete.⁴ That’s a reasonable benchmark. A five-minute click-through with a quiz tacked on the end is unlikely to meet the interactive standard.

The Written Policy That Goes with the Training

Training and the written policy are two separate obligations that work together. Every employer has to adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy and distribute it in writing. The policy must be provided in English and in whatever language each employee identifies as their primary language, both at the time of hiring and at every annual training session.¹

The policy has to include several pieces beyond what the training itself covers:

A standard complaint form employees can use to report harassment.
A procedure for timely and confidential investigation of complaints that ensures due process for everyone involved.
A clear statement that retaliation against anyone who reports harassment or participates in an investigation is unlawful.
A clear statement that harassment is a form of employee misconduct and that the employer will enforce sanctions against anyone who engages in it.

You can adopt the state’s model policy word-for-word or write your own that meets or exceeds these minimums. The model policy and training materials are free to download from the state’s official website.⁵ For most small and mid-sized employers, the model documents are the simplest path.

Extra Requirements for NYC Employers

If you have 15 or more employees in New York City, or one or more domestic workers, the city’s Stop Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act adds requirements on top of the state’s. NYC employers must post a sexual harassment prevention poster in English and Spanish in a visible location and give new employees a fact sheet about sexual harassment prevention.⁴

The city also takes a broader view of remote workers. If a worker regularly interacts with employees who work in New York City, the city expects that worker to be trained even if they are never physically present in the five boroughs. The training and policy requirements overlap with the state’s, so most NYC employers run a single program that covers both. The NYC Commission on Human Rights offers its own free online module designed to meet both sets of rules.

Recordkeeping

Proof that every employee completed the training is the only way to show compliance if the question comes up later. At a minimum, keep records showing each employee’s name, the date they completed the training, and which version of the materials was used.

New York City explicitly requires employers to retain training records for at least three years.⁶ The state statute doesn’t specify a retention period, but three years is a practical floor for any New York employer. If a harassment complaint is filed, you’ll want records going back further than the most recent training cycle. Signed attendance logs or digital completion certificates with timestamps are the strongest evidence.

On the federal side, EEOC regulations require employers to retain personnel and employment records for at least one year, and longer if a charge has been filed.⁷ Harassment training records fall into that category, so a three-year hold covers the NYC mandate and sits comfortably above the federal minimum.

What Non-Compliance Costs

Labor Law Section 201-g doesn’t list a specific fine for failure to train. That doesn’t make non-compliance free. The costs show up elsewhere.

When an employee sues for sexual harassment, one of the first things their attorney requests in discovery is proof of the employer’s training program and the employee’s completion records. An employer who cannot produce those records loses credibility and may lose access to certain defenses. New York has eliminated the federal Faragher-Ellerth affirmative defense for harassment claims brought under state law, so an employer cannot escape liability just by pointing to a policy on the shelf. A well-documented training program still matters as evidence of good faith and can shape settlement negotiations and damage awards.

NYC employers face more direct financial exposure. The NYC Commission on Human Rights can impose civil penalties of up to $250,000 for willful violations of the city’s harassment prevention requirements and can order corrective measures like mandatory training and policy overhauls. For most businesses, a few hours of proper training per year is far cheaper than defending a single complaint where the records show the company never bothered.

1
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 201-G – Prevention of Sexual Harassment
2
New York State. Sexual Harassment Policy for All Employers in New York State
3
New York State. Combating Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
4
NYC.gov. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
5
New York State. Sexual Harassment Prevention Model Policy and Training
6
NYC.gov. Sexual Harassment Training FAQs
7
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recordkeeping Requirements