Sexual harassment in the workplace is a pervasive problem across industries. ^[1] However, its impact is not evenly distributed: although workers in many sectors experience harassment, women consistently face disproportionately high rates of sexual harassment in the workplace.^[2] In a study conducted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) examining sexual harassment charges over four fiscal years (2018–2021), the EEOC reported that of the 27,291 charges filed with the EEOC alleging sexual harassment, 78.2% had been filed by women.^[3]

Women also disproportionately face higher rates of poverty.^[4] In 2024, while poverty rates generally remained unchanged, there was still a significant earnings gap between men’s and women’s wages, which persists today.^[5] These rates are not just due to a pay gap for the same work, but instead because women are more concentrated in low-paying jobs.^[6] Additionally, there are more educated women (associate’s and bachelor’s degrees) in low-paying and female-dominated jobs than in 1994.^[7] Overall, women represent nearly two-thirds of the workforce in low-paid jobs (defined here as the 40 lowest paying jobs).^[8] Women’s concentration in low-paying jobs has yet to be alleviated, and generally has worsened, particularly for women of color.^[9] Therefore, poverty among women is a current and worsening issue.

Women are not just overrepresented in low-paying jobs, but are more at-risk to workplace sexual harassment, especially in jobs at or below minimum wage.^[10] There are varying factors that contribute to women experiencing sexual harassment in their workplace.^[11] In certain industries, like the service industry, there are significant power disparities, which increase employees’ exposure to harm—especially considering that many employees in the service industry are reliant upon tips and subject to managers who take advantage of this reliance.^[12] The restaurant industry offers an illuminating illustration of how sexual harassment appears in low-wage environments, especially where workers earn at or below the minimum wage and depend heavily on tips.^[13]  Additionally, servers are predominantly female.^[14] In 2014, women made up 52.3% of the restaurant industry and 66.6% of tipped workers.^[15] Tipping can be problematic as the power dynamic between the service-provider and customer revolves around the idea that the employee’s income is dependent upon the customer’s satisfaction and subsequent tip based on the service.^[16] Not only is there a clear power asymmetry between the service-provider and the customer, but service-providers may be paid a federal “tipped minimum wage” as low as $2.13 so long as “the combination of tips and wages from the employer equals the federal minimum wage.”^[17] Since service-workers often receive this tipped minimum or “sub-minimum wage,^[18]” they become dependent on their tips and this dependence results in more workers that are likely to put up with instances of sexual harassment such as suggestive language and inappropriate touching.^[19] Thus, the tipped minimum wage policies still in place, expose restaurant workers to unjust practices, even more so when gender, race, and ethnicity are also considered.^[20]

Ultimately, sexual harassment against women in low-paying jobs is a poverty issue.^[21] This is not the source of individual bad actors, but rather, systematic structures positioned to perpetuate harassment.^[22] By working to prevent and punish sexual harassment in the workplace through poverty-related policies to raise wages, women’s working conditions can improve resulting in women receiving enough paid for economic security.^[23] For women who make at or below minimum wage and rely on tips, raising wages could help position society to not normalize a culture where an employee is forced to accept harassment in order to make a living.^[24]

Currently, the Trump Administration has been undermining workplace protections.^[25] At the beginning of the year, in response to an executive order, the EEOC voted to rescind its Enforcement Guidance on Workplace Harassment.^[26] This will likely not only affect women’s ability to enter the workforce, but will also affect their ability to remain in paying jobs. Although it is currently unclear how the EEOC’s decision will impact the workplace, without proactive efforts by employers to educate their workforce and enforce clear anti-harassment policies, women are likely to face continued, and potentially escalating, unchecked harassment while perpetrators act without meaningful accountability.^[27] With the changes in guidance, more women will work in low-paying jobs without any real protections and thus more affected by sexual harassment. It is important to continue to work to strengthen protections for assault, but it is equally as important to target the source of the issue by raising wages to help women obtain economic security.^[28]

Currently, Census data shows that the gender wage gap is widening for a second year in a row.^[29] With the new and continued influx of executive orders and policies that do not address discrimination and actively reduce workplace protections alongside the widening wage gap, more women will continue to experience harassment and the perpetuation of poverty among women will continue.

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Footnotes

^[1] Sexual Harassment in Our Nation’s Workplaces, U.S. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n (2024) https://www.eeoc.gov/data/sexual-harassment-our-nations-workplaces [https://perma.cc/DE4H-GN2B].

^[2] See id.

^[3] Id.

^[4] Shengwei Sun, National Snapshot: Poverty Among Women & Families in 2024, Nat’l Women’s L. Ctr. 1 (2025) https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/National-Snapshot-Poverty-Among-Women-Families-in-2024.pdf.

^[5] U.S. Census Bureau Data Underscores Gender & Racial Disparities; Policy Decisions in 2025 Will Worsen Conditions for All, Ctr. for L. and Soc. Pol’y (2024) https://www.clasp.org/press-room/press-releases/census-bureau-data-underscores-gender-racial-disparities-policy-decisions-in-2025-will-worsen-conditions-for-all/ [https://perma.cc/K8FH-6PS4].

^[6] Ashir Coillberg, Nat’l Women’s L, Ctr., A Window Into the Wage Gap: What’s Behind It and How to Close It, 4 (2024) https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2025-Window-Into-the-Wage-Gap-Factsheet.pdf [hereinafter Wage Gap Factsheet].

^[7] Inst. For Women’s Pol’y Rsch., Undervalued and Underpaid: Women’s Work in the Global Economy, at ii (2020) https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/D508-Undervalued-and-Underpaid.pdf.

^[8] Wage Gap Factsheet, supra note 6, at 4.

^[9] For the First Time Ever, Census Bureau Data Shows Gender Wage Gap Widening for a Second Year in a Row, Nat’l Women’s L. Ctr. (Sept. 9, 2025), https://nwlc.org/press-release/for-the-first-time-ever-census-bureau-data-shows-gender-wage-gap-widening-for-a-second-year-in-a-row/ [https://perma.cc/KMB6-J9H5].

^[10] Oluwasekemi Odumosu, Consequences of Workplace Incivilities and Harassment Toward Women in Low-Wage Jobs, WorkRise (March 26, 2024), https://workrisenetwork.org/working-knowledge/consequences-workplace-incivilities-and-harassment-toward-women-low-wage-jobs [https://perma.cc/G9K5-KPUS];U.S. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n, supra note 1.

^[11] See U.S. Equal Emp. Opportunity Comm’n, supra note 1.

^[12] 2024 Tipped Minimum Wage Fact Sheet, Inst. For Women’s Pol’y Rsch. 1–2, 8 (2024) https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Tipped-Minimum-Wage-Fact-Sheet-2024-1.pdf [hereinafter Tipped Minimum Wage Fact Sheet].

^[13] Id. at 1–2, 8.

^[14] Id. at 1.

^[15] Madeline Terlap, Reworking Women’s Work: Legal and Policy Solutions for Alleviating Poverty Among Working Women, 30 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol’y 639, 648 (2023); Alyssa Davis & David Cooper, The Way We Pay Tipped Workers Disproportionately Harms Women, Econ. Pol’y Inst. (Mar. 25, 2015), https://www.epi.org/publication/the-way-we-pay-tipped-workers-disproportionately-harms-women/.

^[16] Wendy Pollack, How Working for Tips Fosters Sexual Harassment, Shriver Ctr. on Poverty L. (Sept. 10, 2019) https://www.povertylaw.org/article/how-working-for-tips-fosters-sexual-harassment/ [https://perma.cc/UK6H-VBTU].

^[17] Tipped Minimum Wage Fact Sheet, supra note 12, at 1–2.

^[18] Id.

^[19] Pollack, supra note 16.

^[20] Tipped Minimum Wage Fact Sheet, supra note 12, at 1.

^[21] Mica Whitfield, Ending Workplace Sexual Harassment Is Economic Justice, 9to5 (June 27, 2024) https://9to5.org/ending-workplace-sexual-harassment-is-economic-justice/ [https://perma.cc/DX63-P7Z9]; Isabela Salas-Betsch, Ending Discrimination and Harassment at Work, Ctr. For Am. Progress (2024) https://www.americanprogress.org/article/playbook-for-the-advancement-of-women-in-the-economy/ending-discrimination-and-harassment-at-work/.

^[22] Salas-Betsch, supra note 21.

^[23] See id.

^[24] Wage Gap Factsheet, supra note 6, at 4; Salas-Betsch, supra note 21.

^[25]Breaking: Trump’s Administration to Rescind Harassment Guidance, Nat’l Women’s L. Ctr. (Jan. 22. 2026) https://nwlc.org/press-release/breaking-trump-administration-to-rescind-harassment-guidance/ [https://perma.cc/VW2P-SC9W].

^[26]Andrea James, Tara Sign Param, & Carson Blakely, EEOC Rescinds 2024 Harassment Guidance Addressing Workplace Harassment, Holland & Knight (Jan. 27, 2026) https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2026/01/eeoc-rescinds-2024-harassment-guidance-addressing [https://perma.cc/5PMT-34GY]; Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, The White House (2025) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/ [https://perma.cc/69UL-ZYSK].

^[27] Holland & Knight, supra note 26.

^[28] Salas-Betsch, supra note 21.

^[29] For the First Time Ever, Census Bureau Data Shows Gender Wage Gap Widening for a Second Year in a Row, Nat’l Women’s L. Ctr. (Sept. 9, 2025), https://nwlc.org/press-release/for-the-first-time-ever-census-bureau-data-shows-gender-wage-gap-widening-for-a-second-year-in-a-row/ [https://perma.cc/A8D7-3N54].