Quid pro quo behavior involves using position power to make employment benefits or consequences conditional on sexual compliance. This includes explicit demands like directly asking for sexual favors in exchange for workplace benefits, implicit threats such as suggesting negative consequences will follow if sexual demands aren’t met, and creating situations where sexual submission is understood to be required for job advancement or security. The behavior doesn’t always involve direct verbal demands – it can include suggestive comments paired with employment decisions that make the connection clear.

The behavior often escalates over time, starting with seemingly innocent comments or requests that gradually become more explicit as the harasser tests boundaries. They might begin with inappropriate compliments about appearance, progress to requests for personal time together, and eventually make explicit sexual demands while making clear that job benefits depend on compliance. What makes this behavior particularly harmful is that it exploits the victim’s economic vulnerability and need for employment to coerce sexual activity.

Workplace discrimination occurs when you’re treated unfavorably because of your membership in a protected class, such as your race, gender, age, religion, disability, national origin, or other characteristics protected by law. This includes hiring discrimination where you’re not hired because of protected characteristics, promotion discrimination where advancement opportunities are denied based on bias, pay discrimination where you receive unequal compensation for equal work, and termination discrimination where you’re fired for discriminatory reasons rather than legitimate performance issues.

Discrimination can be direct and obvious, such as being told you won’t be promoted because of your race or gender, or subtle and circumstantial, such as consistently receiving worse assignments or evaluations than similarly situated employees of different backgrounds. The key is that the unfavorable treatment must be because of your protected characteristics rather than legitimate job-related factors. This includes both individual acts of discrimination and systemic practices that have a discriminatory impact on protected groups, even if that wasn’t the intended purpose.

Any scenario where someone with authority over your employment makes job benefits or consequences dependent on sexual compliance would be quid pro quo harassment. Examples include a supervisor saying you’ll get the promotion if you sleep with them, a manager threatening to fire you unless you go on dates, a boss implying that your performance review depends on sexual favors, or a company owner making business opportunities conditional on sexual submission. The common thread is that someone with power over your job is using that power to demand sexual activity.

Non-examples would include inappropriate sexual comments that don’t involve employment consequences, unwelcome touching that isn’t tied to job benefits, or sexual advances from coworkers who don’t have authority over your employment. While these behaviors might constitute hostile work environment harassment, they wouldn’t be quid pro quo unless they involved someone with power over your job making employment decisions conditional on sexual compliance. The distinction matters because different legal standards apply to different types of harassment.

To prove quid pro quo harassment, you need to establish that someone with authority over your employment made job benefits or consequences conditional on sexual submission. This requires showing that the person had supervisory power over you, that they made sexual demands or advances, and that they connected these demands to employment decisions either explicitly or implicitly. Direct evidence like emails, texts, or recorded conversations where the harasser makes explicit demands is strongest, but circumstantial evidence such as timing of employment actions following refused advances can also be compelling.

Documentation is crucial for building your case. Keep records of all sexual advances or demands, note the timing of any employment decisions that follow your responses to harassment, save any written communications that show the connection between sexual demands and job consequences, and gather witness statements from anyone who observed the harassment or its effects on your employment. You should also document any complaints you made to the company and their response, as this can be important for establishing employer liability and addressing any potential defenses about not knowing the harassment was occurring.