Texas Discrimination & the 1-Employee Harassment Law

The Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (Chapter 21) covers employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year (Tex. Lab. Code § 21.002(8)(A)) — and a county, municipality, state agency, or state instrumentality regardless of the number of individuals employed (§ 21.002(8)(D)) — and tracks Title VII/ADA/ADEA. Protected classes: race, color, disability, religion, sex, national origin, and age 40+. It is enforced by the TWC Civil Rights Division. Texas does not add sexual orientation or gender identity at the state level, but Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020), covers them federally under Title VII's sex prohibition.

A 2021 law (SB 45) created a broader sexual-harassment standard at Tex. Labor Code § 21.141–.142 — those two sections are the whole of Subchapter C-1, and there is no § 21.143. It applies to employers with one or more employees, creates a textual basis for individual liability on a person who commits or fails to remedy harassment (a reading no Texas appellate court has yet settled), and — where the employer or its agents or supervisors know or should have known the conduct was occurring — requires "immediate and appropriate corrective action." The 300-day filing window (versus the general 180 days) comes from a different statute — § 21.202(a-1), with the conforming § 21.201(g) — not from SB 45.

In Waffle House, Inc. v. Williams, 313 S.W.3d 796 (Tex. 2010), the Texas Supreme Court held that the TCHRA is the exclusive remedy for workplace sexual harassment — it preempts overlapping common-law claims (like negligent supervision/retention) based on the same conduct. Handle harassment through the statutory framework.

Maintain a clear anti-harassment policy and complaint procedure, train supervisors, investigate promptly, and take immediate corrective action — the SB 45 standard makes a fast, documented response especially important, even for very small Texas employers.