New York annual interactive sexual harassment training
New York requires every employer in the state, regardless of size, to deliver interactive sexual harassment prevention training to every employee, every year. The state publishes a model program, but most employers customize it to satisfy industry and locality requirements.
Coverage scope
Every employee who works, or will work, in New York, including part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers, and anyone based elsewhere who works part of their time in the state. Independent contractors are protected by the law, but employers are not required to train them, though the state encourages extending it to them.
Duration & frequency
- Duration
- No statutory minimum length, but content must cover all required elements; typical compliant programs run 30–60 minutes for non-supervisors and longer for supervisors.
- Frequency
- Annually, every twelve (12) months.
- New hires
- No statutory deadline for the training itself; the state encourages it as soon as possible, since an employer may be liable for an employee's conduct immediately upon hire. Separately, the written policy must be provided at the time of hiring, and that one is a statutory requirement under Labor Law 201-g(2-a)(a).
Every compliant program must include
Miss any one of these elements and your training fails the New York standard, even if every other detail is perfect.
Explanation of sexual harassment consistent with the NY Department of Labor model
Examples of conduct constituting unlawful sexual harassment
Information on federal and state statutory provisions and remedies
Information on employees' rights of redress and forums for adjudicating complaints
Conduct by supervisors and additional supervisor responsibilities
Interactive component (questions, scenarios, or feedback mechanism)
Recordkeeping
Best practice is to retain training records for at least three (3) years; the state's model policy and the New York City Local Law impose three-year retention.
Penalties & enforcement
No standalone civil penalty for failing to train, but failure undermines the employer's defenses to harassment claims under NYSHRL, which after 2019 amendments protects employees regardless of employer size and lowered the severity threshold below 'severe or pervasive.'
New York State Division of Human Rights and the New York Department of Labor.
Fourteen or fewer employees?
You sit below the fifteen-employee threshold where the federal laws begin, which is where most small employers stop reading. New York does not use that line, so this training requirement reaches you anyway. We run a program scoped for exactly that position.
We map your roster to every mandate that applies.
New York is one of 11 jurisdictions in our compliance matrix. If your employees work across state lines, the mandates stack: different durations, frequencies, and content per location. We handle that.
This page summarizes publicly available statutes and regulatory guidance, last reviewed July 2026. State and local mandates change frequently; verify current requirements with the enforcing agency or employment counsel before relying on this content for compliance decisions. empathiHR clients receive a written compliance matrix updated against their roster and locations.
Get a compliance matrix mapped to your roster.
New York is one piece of the picture. We inventory every state and city your employees work in, deliver compliant training per location, and produce the documentation your counsel will need.