Utah ranks high in men claiming harassment at work

SALT LAKE CITY — Does this mean something?

Utah has ranked in the top 10 states in the nation in percent of sexual harassment claims made by men four out of the past five years. For two of those years — 2009 and 2004 — Utah ranked No. 1.

Experts are scratching their heads and wondering why.

Is it a statistical anomaly because it's a small state with low numbers? Is it because fewer women file complaints in Utah? Or because Utah has a higher percentage of men in the workplace? Or is there something about the Utah workplace, or Utah culture, or Utah men that makes them upset enough to take action?

According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, men filed nearly a third of the sexual harassment claims in Utah during the last fiscal year. That's 46 men out of a total of 143 claims. Nationally, claims by men are up 20 percent in the past decade. Still, the vast majority of claims involve the woman as victim.

Anecdotally, says Justine Lisser, senior attorney with the EEOC in Washington, D.C., the majority of charges filed by men nationwide are complaints of sexual harassment by other men. But neither the EEOC nor the Utah Labor Commission tracks the gender of the harasser, so there is no official data to reveal whether this is true in Utah.

Salt Lake employment attorney John Black says most of the calls he gets from men are complaints about women supervisors. "I don't know if it's women are being more brazen, maybe trying to be more like guys," he says.

"Maybe males are more willing to complain now, maybe because their complaints are taken a little more seriously, or should be, so maybe they're more willing to complain," Black speculates.

He offers the example of a 40-year-old forklift operator who has filed a claim against a female supervisor.

"Every day I would go to work, my supervisor would flirt with me and grab my butt," says the man. "She showed me pictures of pornography on her phone and she'd say this is what she wanted to do with me. … It made me sick to my stomach."

Is there more behavior like this in Utah than in other states? Or are men more likely to be offended here, either because of a stricter moral code or something else?

One theory, says Salt Lake employment lawyer Russell Monahan, is that "some men in the state of Utah don't believe women belong in the workplace, and this is one way to get back."