US study puts a high price on cost of sexual harassment

• Date: 21 July 2021
• Author: Bryce Covert
• Published date: 21 July 2021

To put a number on it, a study published on Wednesday by Washingtonbased Time's Up and the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), Paying Today and Tomorrow, sought to nail down what people who had been harassed ended up paying. Victims interviewed faced expenses from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For one woman working in the wellpaid, maledominated construction industry, the lifetime cost could reach $1.3m, according to the study. Even someone forced out of a lowwage job such as those in the fastfood industry saw financial fallout totalling $125,600.

Workers who took part in the study came from a variety of industries — from technology to trucking to janitorial services. Almost everyone said they lost some work or were forced out of their jobs altogether. Most lost responsibilities and pay as retaliation for speaking up — they were docked hours, given poor performance evaluations, or denied bonuses and promotions until they were pushed out or fired. Some remained unemployed for as long as five years.

Many changed careers, starting back at the bottom in jobs that paid much less than what they left behind, according to the study. For a few, it meant spending even more money on retraining or tuition. Meanwhile, all suffered from lost wages, lost health benefits and depleted retirement savings as debts piled up.

When the #MeToo movement began in earnest in 2018, "we had all these women sharing their stories", said C. Nicole Mason, president of IWPR. But "we had very little research or data about what this means for women's economic mobility, security, career mobility. We really couldn't answer that question."

Data can be hard to come by. Settlements typically come with nondisclosure agreements, and the government doesn't require businesses to report whether women are leaving due to harassment. "We took it as a personal charge to try to quantify this," Mason said.

The case of Marlene is a prime illustration of what can happen. Asking to be identified by only her first name due to ongoing litigation, Marlene said colleagues at the agency where she worked warned she had been promoted for the wrong reasons. According to a lawsuit she filed in May, Marlene soon discovered what they meant.

Two months after starting her new job as executive assistant, she alleged that her supervisor started making comments about her appearance and personal life. Then he began leaving small gifts with handwritten cards in her office at night, she said...