A landmark study of more than 1,000 LGBTQ2S+ young people in the workplace found that more than 75% had experienced sexual harassment at work.
Common forms of harassment included inappropriate sexually suggestive or explicit remarks, intrusive questions about personal identities, bodies, or sex lives and unwelcome sexual jokes targeting LGBTQ2S+ individuals, reports HR Law Canada.
“The younger a person was, the more likely they were to have been sexually harassed at work. Young people have less experience in workplace relations and are often employed in casual and low-paid positions with limited job security,” the magazine reports. This tends to make the cost of sexual harassment, in terms of liability and expected court awards, lower in these types of workplaces, and also results in lesser reporting of these offences.
Workplace sexual harassment has profound effects on LGBTQ2S+ youth, with 80% reporting negative impacts on their mental health and 42% feeling worse about their LGBTQ2S+ identities. More than half said harassment harmed their careers and 22% faced financial consequences, such as reduced shifts, job loss, or leaving unsafe workplaces.
