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WASHINGTON, DC 20510

May 29, 2018

The Honorable Gene L. Dodaro
Comptroller General of the United States
Government Accountability Of?ce

441 St., NW.

Washington, DC. 20548

Dear Mr. Dodaro:

As recent media reports have made abundantly clear, far too many US. workers continue to suffer from
sexual harassment in their workplaces, resulting in substantial costs to our nation?s economy and
workforce. However, the extent of this discrimination and the magnitude of its detrimental economic
effect on the labor force have not been fully quanti?ed. Earlier this year, 22 Senators wrote to the
Secretary of Labor and the Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to urge BLS to
collect data on the economic costs of sexual harassment in the workforce, as its current data are
insuf?cient to conduct an analysis of such costs. While employers tend to focus on direct costs to a
business, such as legal fees or settlement amounts, the true cost of sexual harassment includes indirect
costs such as decreased productivity, increased turnover, and reputational harm. All of this is an
impediment to employee performance and employers? bottom-lines.

Each year, workers in the US. ?le thousands of sexual harassment claims against their employers with
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is tasked with enforcing federal civil
rights laws, including hearing and deciding on sexual harassment complaints brought by workers against
their employers. In 2016, the EEOC reported that since 2010, employers had paid out nearly $700 million
to employees through administrative enforcement pre?litigation process alone} This ?gure does
not include millions more paid by employers to employees after EEOC ?led successful lawsuits for
harassment. While EEOC does not collect comparable cost data with respect to sexual harassment in
various federal agencies, in March of 2018, the US. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) reported
that one in seven federal employees had experienced sexual harassment behaviors in the preceding two
years.2 Although this most recent report did not include information on the economic consequences of
sexual harassment, a 1994 MSPB estimate placed those costs at approximately $327.1 million to the
federal government alone. The federal government is the largest and most diverse workforce in the

 

1 US. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the
Workforce, (Washington, DC: June 2016).

2 US. Merit Systems Protection Board, Update on Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace,
(Washington, D.C.: March 2018).

country, and it is safe to assume that the current costs to the federal government from sexual harassment
are even more considerable?

Accordingly, we respectfully request that GAO investigate the economic effect of this pervasive problem
on our nation?s workforce and on the US. economy. Speci?cally, we are interested in learning the
following:

1) What is known about the prevalence of sexual harassment and its economic effect on the US.
economy and federal workforce?

2) How does EEOC track and compile data on the prevalence and costs of sexual harassment in the
workplace?

3) What actions do experts recommend in order to improve understanding of the costs and prevalence of
sexual harassment to the US. economy?

We look forward to working with GAO on these important questions. Please contact Keith Castaldo
or (202) 224-4451) with any questions. Thank you for your
attention to our request.

Sincerely,

 

 

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Kirsten Gillibrand Patty Murray
United States Senator United States Senator

 

    

Dianne Feinstein Elizab th Warren
United States Senator Unite States Senator

 

3 In a survey conducted nearly 25 years ago (the most recent survey conducted by MSPB prior to 2018),
the MSPB conservatively estimated that the combined costs of sexual harassment to the federal
government totaled approximately $327 million over the previous two years. U.S. Merit Systems
Protection Board, Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace: Trends, Progress, Continuing
Challenges (Washington, D.C.: 1994).