Sexual Harassment in New York City
The sexual harassment law in New York City is different than the federal and New York State laws. This was explained in the post below. The New York City law is excellent and a credit to the City law makers because it provides genuine protection against sexual harassment. The federal and New York State laws, however, are ineffective in preventing sexual harassment because they give companies an easy out. There is one major difference between the New York City law and the Federal and State law.
The New York City law recognizes that sexual harassment victims generally do not report the harassment. If a woman is sexually harassed by a supervisor at work, she knows that reporting the harassment is unlikely to stop the harassment and reporting it will probably ruin her career. The only real option for a sexual harassment victim today is to leave the company. The New York City law recognizes this and there is no obligation to report sexual harassment by a supervisor to the company. Not so under the federal and New York State law.
Under the federal and state law, a woman who is sexually harassed by her supervisor is required to report the harassment to the company. This is an absurd requirement and it proves that federal and state law makers are out of touch with reality. These laws force a woman to commit career suicide just because she is sexually harassed by a supervisor. It almost appears that these laws were created by a bunch of old men who are clueless. Actually, the federal law was created by the US Supreme Court, which until recently was overwhelming male. Now there are two females on the court and maybe they will sway the old men out of their arm chairs and into reality. A more balanced court is needed to create realistic laws. The federal sexual harassment law is a good example of a law that might have good intentions but actually weakens the rights of those it was designed to protect.
