Earlier this summer, Victoria Lipnic, acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, reported that the EEOC had not seen a surge in charges alleging sexual harassment since the beginning of #MeToo.
(Because #MeToo didn't gain steam until October 2017, it is possible that a groundswell will appear in the EEOC's charge-filing statistics for the next fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018.)
Meanwhile, an Associated Press article this week says that various state agencies are feeling the pressure. According to the article, New York City and Massachusetts are hiring new investigators to help handle the volume of complaints. (As John MacDonald and I reported yesterday, New York State and New York City both have new sexual harassment prevention laws.)
However, other state civil rights agencies are reportedly getting more sexual harassment complaints than they can handle. These include the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which reports that its volume of sexual harassment complaints this year is almost twice what it was a year ago. In addition, the Idaho Human Rights Commission and the Maine Human Rights Commission report more complaints and are having difficulty handling the increased load.
On the other hand, the Florida Commission on Human Relations reports that an expected surge in charges has not materialized.
. . . yet?
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