What Is Sexual Harassment According to the EEOC?

The EEOC's guidelines on sexual harassment, published at 29 CFR 1604.11, state that harassment on the basis of sex violates section 703 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under the guidelines, unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:

1. Submission to the conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment. 2. Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting the individual. 3. The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with work performance or creating an "intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment" (29 CFR 1604.11(a)).

The EEOC's sexual harassment page adds that harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature and can include offensive remarks about a person's sex. The victim and the harasser can be a woman or a man, and they can be the same sex. The law does not prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that are not very serious. Harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment, or when it results in an adverse employment decision, such as the victim being fired or demoted. The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee such as a client or customer.

The EEOC looks at the record as a whole and the totality of the circumstances, and it decides legality case by case (29 CFR 1604.11(b)). For conduct between fellow employees, an employer is responsible where it or its agents or supervisory employees knew or should have known of the conduct, unless it can show that it took immediate and appropriate corrective action. A similar standard can apply to conduct by non-employees (29 CFR 1604.11(d) and (e)).

The guidelines also describe prevention steps, such as raising the subject, expressing strong disapproval, developing sanctions, and informing employees how to raise harassment concerns under Title VII (29 CFR 1604.11(f)). These topics are common in workplace harassment training and broader compliance training. Title VII generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year (42 U.S.C. 2000e(b)). On January 22, 2026, the EEOC voted to rescind its 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace. The 1604.11 guidelines remain in the eCFR.