Connecticut Sexual Harassment Training Requirements

Connecticut sexual harassment training requirements come from the Time’s Up Act, codified at CT Gen. Stat. § 46a-54. If you have three or more employees, you must give every worker two hours of interactive training within six months of hire and refresh it at least once every ten years. If you have fewer than three employees, the same training rules apply, but only to your supervisors.¹²

Who Counts Toward the Three-Employee Threshold

The three-employee threshold is a total headcount across every location, not a Connecticut headcount. A company based anywhere else in the country with ten workers at home and one worker in Connecticut has crossed the threshold, and that single Connecticut-based employee must be trained.³

For employers past the threshold, the statute reaches every individual on payroll. The law defines “employee” broadly, including a person employed by their own parent, spouse, or child.¹ Full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers are all covered.

Remote workers follow the employee’s location, not the company’s. A Connecticut resident working from home for an out-of-state employer is subject to the requirement whenever the employer’s total headcount hits three. That catches many out-of-state companies off guard, so any multi-state employer with Connecticut-based remote workers should confirm compliance separately for each state where employees actually sit.³

Smaller employers (fewer than three employees) only need to train supervisory staff. The CHRO does not give a stand-alone definition of “supervisory employee” for this purpose, so if you are uncertain about a particular role, training is free through the CHRO and over-compliance costs nothing.

Deadlines You Have to Hit

New employees at organizations with three or more workers must complete training within six months of their hire date. New supervisors at smaller employers must be trained within six months of hire or of assuming a supervisory role.¹²

After the initial session, all employers must provide supplemental training at least every ten years. The statutory phrase is “not less than every ten years,” so ten years is the outer edge; more frequent refreshers are permitted and arguably better practice.¹

Because the original compliance deadline for existing employees was October 1, 2020, the first wave of supplemental training comes due by October 1, 2030. For anyone trained after that initial deadline, the ten-year clock runs from their individual completion date.

Credit for Prior CHRO Training

If you hire someone who already completed either in-person training provided by the CHRO or the free online CHRO course while working for a different employer, and that training happened within the two years before their new hire date, you can count it toward the initial requirement.¹ This credit only applies to CHRO training. Third-party programs from a prior employer do not qualify.

What the Two Hours Must Cover

Every session runs at least two hours and must include federal and state law on sexual harassment as well as the remedies available to victims.¹ In practice, that means covering:

Legal definitions of sexual harassment under Connecticut and federal law, including hostile work environment and quid pro quo scenarios.
How to report harassment internally and how to file a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
The prohibition on retaliation against anyone who reports harassment or participates in an investigation.²
Practical guidance on identifying and stopping harassing behavior before it escalates.

The training must be interactive. The CHRO defines that to mean participants can ask questions and receive answers, either through a live question-and-answer session or through a system that lets them submit questions and get responses within a reasonable time.³ A pre-recorded video with no path to ask questions does not meet this standard on its own.

Posting and the Three-Month Written Notice

Training is not the only obligation. Employers with three or more employees must post information about the illegality of sexual harassment and the remedies available to victims in a prominent, accessible location in the workplace.¹

Employers must also provide that same information to each new employee within three months of their start date.¹ Acceptable delivery methods include:

Email to the employee’s company-provided or personal email address, with a subject line containing “Sexual Harassment Policy” or similar language.
Posting on the employer’s website, if the employee has no email account and the employer maintains a site.
A link to the CHRO’s sexual harassment information page delivered by email, text message, or in writing.

The three-month written notice is a separate deadline from the six-month training deadline. Many employers handle both during onboarding, but the law treats them as distinct obligations.

Records

The statute does not prescribe a format or retention period for training records. The CHRO has said its certificates of completion are not required as proof, and employers may track compliance using their own methods.⁴

That flexibility is not a reason to skip documentation. If a harassment complaint arises, you will need to show training was delivered on time. Keep a log of each employee’s name, the completion date, and the method used (CHRO online course, third-party vendor, or in-house session). Because the supplemental cycle runs ten years, records should be retained at least that long to prove both initial and supplemental compliance.

Using the Free CHRO Course or a Third-Party Program

The Time’s Up Act required the CHRO to develop an online training video available to employers at no cost.² The course runs at the participant’s own pace with video segments and quizzes and issues an optional certificate of completion. Employees can reach it through the CHRO site or the Business.CT.gov knowledge base.⁴

You are not required to use the CHRO course. Third-party vendors and in-house programs satisfy the law as long as they run at least two hours, cover the required topics, and include an interactive component. Small businesses often stick with the free CHRO option. Larger employers sometimes prefer live sessions that weave in company-specific policies.

Penalties and Real Exposure

An employer that fails to provide the required training faces a civil fine of up to $1,000.⁵ The fine itself is modest. The bigger risk is defensive: an employer that never trained its workforce has a much harder time arguing it took reasonable steps to prevent harassment when a claim lands. Skipping the training is one of the clearest indicators to a court or agency that reasonable care was not exercised, and that argument gets made before the facts of any particular complaint are even reached.

1
Justia Law. Connecticut Code 46a-54 – Commission Powers
2
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Sexual Harassment Prevention Resources
3
Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training FAQs
4
Business.CT.gov. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training for Employees
5
Connecticut General Assembly. An Act Combatting Sexual Harassment