Sexual Harassment Training Requirements in New England, State by State

“Do we have to train our people on harassment?” We pulled all the requirements for New England employers and employees in one place so you don’t have to search.

Harassment training requirements in New England at a glance

State	Training required?	Who, and by when	Policy and notice rules that apply either way
Connecticut	Yes	All employees at employers with 3+. Supervisors only under 3. Two hours, within six months of hire or promotion, refreshed at least every ten years.	Posted notice at 3+ employees, plus the same information emailed to each new hire within three months. Written policy strongly recommended, not required
Maine	Yes	All employees at employers with 15+, within one year of hire, plus additional training for supervisors	Workplace poster, annual individual written notice, training records kept at least three years
Massachusetts	No	Encouraged within one year of hire, plus additional supervisor training	Written policy, given to every new hire and to all employees annually
Rhode Island	No	Encouraged for all employees, including supervisors	Written policy, distributed to all employees and to new hires at hire
Vermont	No	Recommended	Written policy given to new employees at the start of employment, plus posted notices. Employers with 5+ need an internal complaint process
New Hampshire	No	No state requirement or recommendation	None in the statute

Connecticut and Maine are the two New England states that require harassment training

Connecticut: two hours for every employee, within six months

Connecticut asks the most of employers in the region. Under the Time’s Up Act:

• Three or more employees: every employee gets two hours of sexual harassment prevention training.
• Fewer than three: you still have to train your supervisors.
• New hires and newly promoted supervisors: trained within six months.
• After that: a refresher at least once every ten years.

The state’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities lays out the rules and publishes a free two-hour course you can use.

Two more Connecticut requirements sit outside the training itself, and both get missed.

• A posted notice. At three or more employees, you have to post information about the illegality of sexual harassment and the remedies available to victims, somewhere prominent and easy to get to. CHRO publishes a free poster that covers it.
• Individual notice within three months of hire. Every new employee gets a copy of that same information by email, with “Sexual Harassment Policy” in the subject line. If they don’t have a work email, post it on your website. A link to CHRO’s information page satisfies it either way.

Connecticut stops short of requiring your own written policy the way Massachusetts and Rhode Island do. CHRO strongly recommends you build one into that notice anyway: how you handle harassment, what discipline follows, and who at your company someone can bring a complaint to. Leave it out and the first place your employees look for a process is the state’s website instead of yours.

Maine: fifteen employees, one year, and records the state can ask to see

Maine’s mandate kicks in at fifteen employees. At that size, Title 26, section 807 requires:

• Training for every new employee within one year of their start date.
• Additional training for supervisors and managers on their specific responsibilities and how to take immediate corrective action when a complaint comes in.
• A workplace poster, plus individual written notice to every employee each year.
• Training records kept at least three years, made available for inspection when the Department of Labor asks.

Maine is the only New England state that writes an inspection right into the statute. If you employ anyone there, your records matter as much as your training.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire: no training mandate, still real requirements

Massachusetts: no training mandate, but a yearly policy requirement

Massachusetts doesn’t require training. It does require a written policy against sexual harassment, and it requires you to hand a copy to every new employee at hire and to every employee once a year after that. That annual redistribution is the piece that quietly slips.

Chapter 151B, section 3A also encourages training for new employees within a year, and encourages additional training for supervisors and managers on what they’re responsible for when a complaint reaches them.

Rhode Island: a policy for everyone, training encouraged

Rhode Island requires every employer to adopt a written sexual harassment policy and give it to all employees, with new hires getting a copy when they start. Training is encouraged for everyone, including supervisors, and not required.

Worth flagging if you’ve been reading national guides: some list Rhode Island’s rules as kicking in at fifty or more employees. The statute sets no size threshold at all.

Vermont: policy, poster, and a complaint process at five employees

Vermont requires a written policy, a copy handed to every new employee at the start of employment, and harassment posters displayed where people will see them. Training is recommended, not required. Employers with five or more employees also need an internal process for filing complaints.

New Hampshire: nothing in state law beyond the definition

New Hampshire’s law defines unlawful sexual harassment and leaves it there, with no policy, notice, or training requirement attached. Federal law still applies to New Hampshire employers, and it carries more weight in a state that adds nothing on top of it.

Two things changed in 2026

The Massachusetts training mandate didn’t happen. Plenty of national guides still describe a bill that would require annual, interactive training for Massachusetts employers starting January 1, 2027. That’s H.5023. It was reported favorably out of committee in February 2026, referred to House Ways and Means, and sat there.

It didn’t pass before formal sessions ended, so plan around today’s rules rather than that date. Something like it will likely come back in a future session, and it’s worth watching.

The EEOC pulled its harassment guidance. On January 22, 2026, the EEOC voted 2-1 to rescind the Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace it had issued in April 2024.

Federal law didn’t change. Title VII still applies, the Supreme Court decisions behind it still apply, and the agency has said harassment enforcement remains a priority. What changed is where employers look for direction. State law carries more of the weight now than it did a year ago.

If your employees work in more than one state, the rules follow the person

Training mandates apply based on where an employee performs their work, not where your company is headquartered.

A Massachusetts company with a Connecticut plant owes Connecticut’s two hours to the people at that plant. A Rhode Island company with a remote employee living in Maine counts that person toward Maine’s fifteen-employee threshold and owes them Maine’s training and annual notice.

• Sort your roster by where each person works, remote employees included. That list, not your headquarters address, tells you which rules apply.
• Train to the strictest rule that touches your workforce. In New England, that’s Connecticut’s two hours.
• Layer the state-specific pieces on top. Supervisor training and records in Maine, annual policy distribution in Massachusetts, policy delivery in Rhode Island and Vermont.

Where to start if you’re not sure where you stand

Once you have that roster sorted by state, these questions will tell you most of what you need to know:

1. Are you over the threshold anywhere? Three employees in Connecticut, fifteen in Maine.
2. Is your written policy current, and going out on schedule? Every year in Massachusetts.
3. Can you find your training records, and do the dates clear the deadlines? Six months in Connecticut, one year in Maine.
4. What were your supervisors trained on, separately from everyone else?

When we walk employers through those four questions, the gaps tend to land in the same two places: records nobody can produce, and supervisor training that never happened separately.

If you’d rather not sort it out alone, that’s what we’re here for. Our Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Training runs live for employers across New England, with a separate program for managers and supervisors because their responsibilities under these laws are different. And when a complaint does come in, our team can run an impartial investigation so a hard situation doesn’t get harder.

Tell us where your people work and let’s figure out together what you owe them.