Sexual harassment can happen to any California resident of any gender working in any job.
However, according to one report, there are statistics that suggest sexual harassment is more common in some industries as opposed to others.
To prepare this report, an organization called the Center for American Progress analyzed over 85,000 harassment claims filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC.
Women filed four out of these five sexual harassment claims.
In general, industries where women are heavily represented saw more sexual harassment claims.
On the other hand, claims were also higher in industries where men have traditionally held most if not all leadership positions and other roles.
According to the report, food service workers and those who work in retail had the higest incidents of sexual harassment.
About 14% of the claims studied came from workers in the food service or accommodation sector and over 13% of the claims came from the retail sector.
To put these numbers in perspective, at the time of the study, food service workers accounted for about 7% of the workforce, with about 11% of the workforce being retail workers.
The manufacturing and health care industries also each accounted for over 10% of reported claims.
Victims of harassment from all industries may have legal options available to them
No matter what industry they work in, employees in California do not have to tolerate sexual harassment.
Under both state and federal laws, employees can expect that their employers will take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment and will respond swiftly and decisively should an incident occur.
If employers fail in these responsibilities, victims may have the option to recover compensation for their losses, including non-economic losses like emotional distress.