Sexual Harassment Cases Go Uncounted as Complaint Process Goes Private

Even as women have begun speaking out about sexual harassment at work, the number of official complaints to state and federal regulators hit a two-decade low in 2017.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and its state-level counterparts received just over 9,600 complaints in 2017, according to data obtained by Bloomberg, down from more than 16,000 in 1997—a 41 percent drop.

But few experts think the decline means people—women, mostly—are facing 41 percent less sexual harassment, only that the complaint and resolution process is getting more private. Ninety-five percent of companies now have an in-house complaint process, the Society for ...