The #MeToo movement inspired progressivelegislatures this year to revisit mandatory sexual harassment training programs statewidefor nearly all workers and supervisors, part of the sweeping effortconfronting power imbalances between men and women in theworkplace.

The most comprehensive sexual harassment policies were passed inCalifornia and New York, two states that are often leaders on newinitiatives in the employment law space. New York's state rules went into effect this month,and employers have until October 2019 to implement trainingprograms. California bolstered its existing trainingrequirement.

Related: The cost of unreported sexualharassment

Very few states have mandatory sexual harassment trainingrequirements. Delaware's new sexual harassment training law, signedin August, takes effect in January 2019. That law imposes trainingrequirements on employers with at least 50 employees in the state,according to a Jackson Lewis P.C.analysis.

A handful of states this year, including Maryland and Louisiana,also bolstered or added sexual harassment training requirements forgovernment employees, according to the National Conference of StateLegislatures, which tracked the dozens of measures proposed and enactedthis year aimed at tackling the issue.

Few states and local governments followed suit sinceCalifornia's first training law was passed more than a decade ago,but employment attorneys say the newly passed measures could pushmomentum.

“Other states and jurisdictions will see the lead thatCalifornia and New York have taken,” said Jason Habinsky, anemployment partner at Haynes and Boone in New York. “There issometimes a bandwagon effect.”

In many states, training is recommendedbut not required for the private sector. Maine has a requirementfor companies with more than 15 supervisors. Connecticut also isamong the states that requires training for employers with 50 ormore employees. However, a proposal to expand that requirement toall employers with 15 or more employees failed to pass thisyear.

In the 1990s, two U.S. Supreme Court decisions—BurlingtonIndustries Inc. v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of BocaRaton—provided employers an incentive to demonstrate they hadtaken appropriate steps to prevent harassment. Trainings also areoften a staple in conciliation agreements and consent decrees thatthe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and privateattorneys negotiate to resolve lawsuits and agency cases.

But additional training on its own does little to move theneedle for workplace culture improvements, according to EEOCresearch. A 2016 agency task force on sexualharassment found that, while such training “cannot stand alone butrather must be part of a holistic effort.” The agency's report saidaccountability and leadership were key factors in stoppingworkplace harassment.

California lawmakers passed a law this year that bolsters thestate's training requirement to include nonsupervisory and seasonalworkers. New York state and New York City adopted anti-sexualharassment policies that include mandatory training program for allemployers.

“New York really has been very focused on implementingprotection for the workplace,” Habinsky said. “You always hearabout California being proactive and employer friendly. New Yorkhas now taken serious steps to focus on protecting employees in theworkplace. There is rapid fire development in the law. Mostrecently it's been in stride with the #MeToo movement.”

The New York policies that went into effect this month require acompany to adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy and todistribute it in writing. The New York law also prohibits employersfrom requiring nondisclosure provisions to settle sexual harassmentclaims, except under certain conditions.

Randi Kochman, chair of the employment group at Cole Schotz inNew Jersey, said companies in New York are scrambling to complywith the new regulations. She called it a “new day” for employers.“There will be a cost involved, however they choose to do it,”Kochman said.  “It's continuing the whole conversation andraising questions of these issues.”

Kochman described New York's new mandatory training as “onerous”but added: “Just because it's a burden doesn't mean it's a badthing. Very few states do require it, but it's always beenrecommended, and it definitely has the potential to provide a lotof benefits.”

Jeff Kohn, managing partner of the O'Melveny & Myers office inNew York, said the package of laws passed in New York requiresimmediate attention from employers. Larger companies, he said, willbe better able to adapt to the new annual requirements.

“While many changes will be easy to implement, employerpolicies, arbitration agreements and severance agreements have tobe carefully and thoughtfully structured to avoid tripping over thenew technical requirements of the law,” Kohn said.

Management-side lawyers said New York's policies could proveinfluential to other states—but not overnight. State legislatures,especially in recent years, have taken the lead on labor andemployment issues in the absence of any substantive policymaking atthe federal level.

California also passed new laws confronting sexual harassment inthe wake of the #MeToo movement. The state already had requiredtraining for supervisors for more than a decade. The recentlysigned legislation “expanded the universe to near every employee inthe state,” said Susan Groff, a Jackson Lewis principal in LosAngeles.

Other states will likely watch California and New York to seehow it affects smaller employers, who are more likely to facecompliance hurdles.

“Usually California is one of the thought leaders in employmentlaw, and now you have added pressure in the wake of the #MeToomovement,” Groff said. “I would not be surprised to see otherstates follow.They might wait and see how they progress inCalifornia and I would not be shocked follow suit.”

Read more:

• 5 questions to help guide the overhaul of yoursexual harassment policies
• Constructing a workplace environment that rejectssexual harassment
• Q&A: What sexual harassment is andisn't