Pennsylvania Workplace Harassment Laws: PHRA 4-Employee Rule

Pennsylvania law reaches workplace harassment through the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), which makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer to discriminate because of race, sex, religious creed and other listed traits "with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract" (PHRA section 5(a), 43 P.S. 955(a)). The act's text does not contain the word harassment, and it applies to the Commonwealth, its political subdivisions and school districts, and any person employing four or more persons within Pennsylvania (section 4(b), 43 P.S. 954(b)).

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC), which enforces the act, lists "racial or sexual harassment" among the forms employment discrimination can take. A complaint to the PHRC is due within 180 days after the alleged act of discrimination. For how other states handle these questions, see workplace harassment laws by state.

Information last verified on 2026-10-20. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Pennsylvania state law on workplace harassment by employers, supervisors and coworkers under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, Act of Oct. 27, 1955, P.L. 744, No. 222 (43 P.S. 951-963), chiefly sections 4, 5, 9 and 12. It does not cover wrongful firing or the full complaint and lawsuit procedure (see Pennsylvania wrongful termination), damages estimates, criminal harassment or stalking, harassment outside employment, city and county ordinances, or federal-employee procedure.

Pennsylvania harassment rules at a glance

What the PHRA prohibits

The PHRA does not define harassment and does not set a separate rule for it. Harassment because of a protected trait falls under the general employment clause in section 5(a), which reads in full:

"It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification ... (a) For any employer because of the race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability or the use of a guide or support animal because of the blindness, deafness or physical handicap of any individual or independent contractor, to refuse to hire or employ or contract with, or to bar or to discharge from employment such individual or independent contractor, or to otherwise discriminate against such individual or independent contractor with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract, if the individual or independent contractor is the best able and most competent to perform the services required." (PHRA § 5(a), 43 P.S. 955(a))

The PHRC's employment discrimination page describes what the agency treats as discrimination. It says employment discrimination can be "the actions of a boss, supervisor, or coworker towards a specific person or a whole group," and it lists "racial or sexual harassment" as one form.

Because the statute has no harassment definition, it sets no statutory test for when harassing conduct changes the terms or conditions of a job. That question is left to the courts, and this page does not summarize Pennsylvania case law on the standard.

Which Pennsylvania employers are covered

Section 4(b) defines "employer" to include "the Commonwealth or any political subdivision or board, department, commission or school district thereof and any person employing four or more persons within the Commonwealth." There is no separate, smaller threshold for harassment. The PHRC tells the public the same thing: the act "provides protections if you work for a company with four or more employees," and it "does not apply to federal agencies, some law enforcement agencies, and certain other entities."

Religious and charitable employers have a split rule. The general definition excludes "religious, fraternal, charitable or sectarian corporations or associations, except such corporations or associations supported, in whole or in part, by governmental appropriations." But for discrimination "based on race, color, age, sex, national origin or non-job related handicap or disability," the definition includes "religious, fraternal, charitable and sectarian corporations and associations employing four or more persons within the Commonwealth."

Some workers fall outside the definition of "employe" in section 4(c): "(1) any individual employed in agriculture or in the domestic service of any person, (2) any individuals who, as a part of their employment, reside in the personal residence of the employer, (3) any individual employed by said individual's parents, spouse or child."

The federal floor is higher. Title VII defines an employer as a person with "fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year" (42 U.S.C. 2000e(b)), so a Pennsylvania business with four to fourteen employees falls within the PHRA but below the Title VII threshold. The federal rules are summarized on the workplace harassment laws hub.

Independent contractors

Section 5(a) protects an "individual or independent contractor" and reaches discrimination "with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract." Contract workers are therefore inside the clause that harassment claims rest on, subject to the same list of traits and the same closing condition about the person being "the best able and most competent to perform the services required."

Protected traits under the PHRA

Section 5(a) lists:

• race and color
• religious creed
• ancestry
• age, which section 4(h) defines to include "any person forty years of age or older"
• sex
• national origin
• non-job related handicap or disability
• use of a guide or support animal because of the blindness, deafness or physical handicap of the individual or independent contractor

Further rules shape the list:

• Hair texture and protective hairstyles: an amendment added November 25, 2025 (P.L. 331, No. 54) provides that "race" includes "traits historically associated with the individual's race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles," and defines a protective hairstyle to include "locs, braids, twists, coils, Bantu knots, afros and extensions." The same clause preserves an employer's "otherwise valid workplace health and safety rule or policy or other rule or policy justified as a bona fide occupational qualification," provided the employer demonstrates the conditions the clause lists when the rule affects traits historically associated with race.
• Religious head coverings and hairstyles: the same 2025 amendment provides that "religious creed" includes "head coverings and hairstyles historically associated with religious creeds," with a parallel clause preserving an employer's otherwise valid health and safety rule or bona fide occupational qualification when the employer demonstrates the conditions the clause lists (section 4(dd)). Both the race and religious creed clauses also state that they do not prohibit "an otherwise valid workplace policy to prevent a hostile work environment, provided the policy is adopted for nondiscriminatory reasons and is applied equally."
• Association with a person with a disability: section 5(l) makes it unlawful "to exclude or otherwise deny equal jobs or benefits to a person because of the handicap or disability of an individual with whom the person is known to have a relationship or association."
• GED holders: section 5(k) makes it unlawful "for any employer to discriminate against an employe or a prospective employe because the employe only has a diploma based on passing a general educational development test as compared to a high school diploma."

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not named in the statute's text. The PHRC addresses them through regulation: its policy and law page says that in 2023 the commission released regulations explaining that "sex" includes pregnancy status, childbirth status, breastfeeding status, sex assigned at birth, "gender identity or expression," "affectional or sexual orientation" and differences in sex development. That coverage rests on the PHRC's regulations rather than on words in the act. The regulation is 16 Pa. Code 41.206. Because this coverage comes from a regulation rather than the statute, a court ruling or a change to the regulation could alter it.

Employer responsibility and individual liability

The PHRA does not set out a rule on when an employer answers for harassment by a supervisor, a coworker or a non-employee. The PHRC's description of employment discrimination includes the conduct of "a boss, supervisor, or coworker." How Pennsylvania courts allocate employer responsibility in harassment cases is case law that this page does not summarize.

The statute does reach individuals in one way. Section 5(e) makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice:

"(e) For any person, employer, employment agency, labor organization or employe, to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce the doing of any act declared by this section to be an unlawful discriminatory practice, or to obstruct or prevent any person from complying with the provisions of this act or any order issued thereunder, or to attempt, directly or indirectly, to commit any act declared by this section to be an unlawful discriminatory practice." (PHRA § 5(e), 43 P.S. 955(e))

An employee is named in that list, so individual responsibility under the act runs through aiding, abetting, inciting, compelling or coercing an unlawful practice rather than through a direct harassment clause.

One limit on remedies comes from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In Hoy v. Angelone, 554 Pa. 134, 720 A.2d 745 (Pa. 1998), a sexual harassment case, the court held that the PHRA phrase "any other legal or equitable relief" "does not include punitive damages." The full list of remedies is on the Pennsylvania wrongful termination page.

Retaliation for complaining

Section 5(d) makes it unlawful "for any person, employer, employment agency or labor organization to discriminate in any manner against any individual because such individual has opposed any practice forbidden by this act, or because such individual has made a charge, testified or assisted, in any manner, in any investigation, proceeding or hearing under this act." Firings after a complaint, and how they fit with Pennsylvania's default employment rule, are covered on the Pennsylvania at-will employment and wrongful termination pages.

Deadlines and where to file

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission takes employment discrimination complaints, including harassment complaints, under the PHRA.

• PHRC deadline: "Any complaint filed pursuant to this section must be so filed within one hundred eighty days after the alleged act of discrimination, unless otherwise required by the Fair Housing Act" (section 9(h)). The statute has no longer deadline for harassment.
• Late complaints: the commission "shall dismiss with prejudice a complaint which, in its opinion, is untimely with no grounds for equitable tolling, outside its jurisdiction or frivolous on its face" (section 9(j)).
• Federal filing through the PHRC: the PHRC states that it "will also file your employment complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) if your allegations are protected under federal laws."
• Going to court: if within one year after a complaint is filed the commission dismisses it or has not entered into a conciliation agreement to which the complainant is a party, the commission must notify the complainant, who may then sue in the courts of common pleas; that action "shall be filed within two years after the date of notice from the Commission closing the complaint" (section 12(c)).
• Choosing a route: section 12(b) makes the PHRC procedure, when invoked, exclusive "except as provided in subsection (c)," which preserves the court action described above, and "if the complainant institutes any action based on such grievance without resorting to the procedure provided in this act, such complainant may not subsequently resort to the procedure herein."
• Federal charge: the EEOC states that its "180 calendar day filing deadline is extended to 300 calendar days if a state or local agency enforces a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the same basis." The EEOC's Philadelphia and Pittsburgh field offices list the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission as a fair employment practices agency (FEPA), and the Philadelphia office states that "an individual has 300 days from the date of alleged harm to file a charge with this office against an employer with 15 or more employees" (20 or more for age discrimination) in Pennsylvania. For employers below those sizes, it directs charges to the state agency within the state time limit, which it gives as 180 days in Pennsylvania. The field office lists also name city agencies, including the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations and the City of Reading Human Relations Commission; local ordinances are outside this page.

The steps between filing and suit, and the remedies available, are on the Pennsylvania wrongful termination page. The Pennsylvania employment discrimination settlement calculator is an estimating tool, not a prediction of any outcome.

Training and written policies

The PHRA does not require private employers to provide harassment training or to adopt a written harassment policy. Its duties fall on unlawful practices, the commission's procedures and court actions; no section of the act sets a training schedule or a policy requirement for employers. The act's one notice duty is section 5(j), which makes it unlawful "for any person subject to the act to fail to post and exhibit prominently in his place of business any fair practices notice prepared and distributed by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission."

NDAs, confidentiality and arbitration

The PHRA contains no provision limiting nondisclosure, confidentiality or arbitration terms in harassment agreements or settlements. Federal law adds limits for sexual harassment disputes: the Speak Out Act makes nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses agreed to before a sexual harassment dispute arises judicially unenforceable where the conduct is alleged to violate federal, tribal or state law, and the Ending Forced Arbitration Act lets the person alleging sexual harassment elect court over a predispute arbitration agreement, both explained on the workplace harassment laws hub.

Is workplace bullying illegal in Pennsylvania?

The PHRA reaches discrimination because of the traits it lists. It contains no provision on general workplace bullying that is unconnected to those traits, such as hostility aimed at an employee for reasons unrelated to race, sex, religious creed, age, disability or another listed trait.

Documenting harassment and workplace monitoring

Pennsylvania's rules on recording a conversation at work, including a conversation with a harasser, are on the Pennsylvania workplace recording laws page. Employer monitoring of email, devices and workspaces is covered on the Pennsylvania employee monitoring laws page.

Recent changes and pending bills

• 2023: the PHRC released regulations more clearly explaining the definitions of "sex," "religious creed" and "race," with "sex" defined to include gender identity or expression and affectional or sexual orientation.
• 2025: an amendment added November 25, 2025 (P.L. 331, No. 54) added section 4(bb) through (dd), defining race to include hair texture and protective hairstyles and religious creed to include head coverings and hairstyles historically associated with religious creeds.
• Pending: House Bill 2103 of the 2025-2026 session proposes amendments to the PHRA, including its title, definitions and unlawful discriminatory practices section. A bill changes nothing unless it is enacted.

Related pages

• Workplace harassment laws by state
• Pennsylvania wrongful termination
• Pennsylvania at-will employment laws
• Pennsylvania employee monitoring laws
• Pennsylvania workplace recording laws

This article provides general legal information about Pennsylvania workplace harassment law under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act as of 2026-10-20. It is not legal advice. For advice about a specific situation, contact a lawyer licensed in Pennsylvania or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

Last updated: 2026-10-20.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is workplace harassment illegal in Pennsylvania?

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act reaches harassment as discrimination. Section 5(a) bars an employer of four or more persons in Pennsylvania from discriminating because of a listed trait with respect to compensation, hire, tenure, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract, and the PHRC lists racial or sexual harassment as a form of employment discrimination.

Does Pennsylvania harassment law apply to small employers?

The PHRA applies to any person employing four or more persons within Pennsylvania, and to the Commonwealth, its political subdivisions and school districts (section 4(b)). There is no separate threshold for harassment. Federal Title VII applies only to employers with 15 or more employees.

How long do I have to file a harassment complaint with the PHRC?

A PHRC complaint must be filed within 180 days after the alleged act of discrimination (PHRA section 9(h)). The commission dismisses with prejudice a complaint it considers untimely with no grounds for equitable tolling (section 9(j)).

Does the 300-day EEOC deadline apply in Pennsylvania?

The EEOC's field offices for Pennsylvania list the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission as a fair employment practices agency, and the EEOC Philadelphia office states that an individual has 300 days from the date of alleged harm to file a charge against an employer with 15 or more employees (20 or more for age) in Pennsylvania. The 180-day deadline for a PHRC complaint under state law does not change.

Are sexual orientation and gender identity protected in Pennsylvania workplaces?

The PHRA's text does not name them. The PHRC's 2023 regulations define sex to include gender identity or expression and affectional or sexual orientation, so the commission treats them as covered under sex. That definition is in the regulation, 16 Pa. Code 41.206, not in the statute.

Can a coworker or supervisor be personally liable under the PHRA?

Section 5(e) makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person, employer or employe to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce an act the section declares unlawful. The act has no separate clause making harassment by an individual a violation in itself.

Does Pennsylvania require sexual harassment training?

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act contains no harassment training mandate and no written-policy requirement for private employers. Its one notice duty, in section 5(j), is to post the fair practices notice the PHRC prepares and distributes.

Are independent contractors protected from harassment in Pennsylvania?

Section 5(a) of the PHRA covers an individual or independent contractor and reaches discrimination in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment or contract because of a listed trait.

Is workplace bullying illegal in Pennsylvania?

The PHRA reaches discrimination because of the traits it lists, such as race, sex and religious creed. It contains no provision on general workplace bullying unconnected to those traits.