osts of lawsuits against the company. The cost of doing business is significantly increased in such a stressful environment, and, of course, the cost in terms of individual economics and personal well-being can be grave for the victim. Consequently, the federal and state governments have stepped into the fray.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, approved by Congress and signed by the president, provides that "it shall be an unlawful practice for an employer . . . to discriminate against any individual with respect to his [or her] compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex or national origin." This federal law has set the tone for sexual harassment policy throughout American industries, applying to most businesses that hire 15 or more employees. The civil rights law ushered in a wave of litigation since the mid-1970s, which persists to this day. Several states, however, have opted for even stricter standards in evaluating and prosecuting sexual harassment claims than offered by federal law. Numerous ambiguities in court interpretations of the federal law have prompted some states to draft more explicit anti-discriminatory language.
Most of these ambiguities stem from the difficulty in
...