Federal law has a few different statutes designed to protect pregnant workers and many of them overlap in various ways. The enforcement piece is where everything starts to fall apart. The EEOC recently recovered a record $700 million for discrimination victims in fiscal year 2024 and it sounds quite significant. Research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows something else though. Their data shows that a majority of pregnancy discrimination charges don’t lead to any monetary benefit or workplace changes whatsoever. The difference between what these laws promise and what pregnant workers actually experience is massive.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was finalized back in 2023 and requires employers to give appropriate accommodations for pregnant workers unless those accommodations would cause undue hardship for the business. The EEOC filed its first lawsuit under this new law in September 2024 and the case involved an employer who denied accommodations and then fired a pregnant worker.
Employers fall into two camps on this issue. You have businesses that will immediately give a stool or adjust someone’s schedule when an employee needs it, no questions asked and no problems. Other employers will fight each accommodation request. This disconnect between what the law says employers need and what actually happens at work affects large numbers of women.
Federal protections are pretty strong now and recent legal changes have made your rights even stronger than they were before. The hard part is in figuring out which employer actions legally qualify as discrimination and which ones don’t. Here are the laws that protect you during pregnancy.
Your Rights Under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) changed workplace rights for women in America. Before this law was passed, employers had free rein to fire any woman who got pregnant. They’d demote her, cut her hours to almost nothing, or push her out without any legal repercussions whatsoever. The PDA put an immediate stop to these practices by amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
The pregnancy discrimination law is actually simple. Businesses with at least 15 employees have to treat pregnancy in the same way as any other temporary medical condition. If your employer gives light desk duty to somebody with a broken leg, they have to give you that same accommodation during pregnancy. The law is very simple about this and doesn’t leave room for interpretation.
The Supreme Court made their position plain in a 1991 case that still matters now. A battery manufacturer had banned all women who could have children from working in positions with lead exposure. The company claimed that they were protecting future babies from harm with this policy. However the Court rejected that argument. The justices said that businesses couldn’t use fetal safety as an excuse to discriminate against female workers.
Discrimination doesn’t always look obvious. Your boss might suddenly start documenting every time you’re 5 minutes late, but only after you announce your pregnancy. Performance reviews that were always positive might mysteriously tank. These situations count as discrimination under the law.
The whole point here is that everyone should get treated the same way at work. Say your coworker hurts his back and can’t lift boxes anymore. The company moves him to answering phones for a few weeks until he recovers. Well if you can’t lift heavy objects during pregnancy, you deserve that exact same option. The law doesn’t give pregnant workers anything extra or different from what other employees already receive, it just makes sure that they also have access to the same accommodations that everyone else in the company can get when they need help.
New Rules That Help Pregnant Workers
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act changed how pregnant employees are protected in 2023. Before this law existed, pregnant workers dealt with an almost impossible situation. They had to prove they deserved the same accommodations their coworkers already received.
New laws have changed the game for pregnant employees and their employers. Employers are now legally obligated to sit down with pregnant workers and work out what accommodations they need to do their jobs safely and comfortably. The list of what counts as a fair accommodation is actually pretty long. Your employer might need to let you adjust your schedule for those prenatal appointments. If your job includes working with hazardous chemicals or heavy machinery, they’ll probably need to move you to different tasks for a while. Extra bathroom breaks are usually part of the deal. And when morning sickness hits hard, you need a place to sit down.
The entire process mirrors how disability accommodations work at any company. Your employer can’t simply send you on leave if there’s still a reasonable way for you to do your job. The law makes both of you have an honest conversation about what makes the most sense. These discussions usually lead to an arrangement that works out for everyone.
The law also gives employers protection. Businesses don’t need to provide accommodations if those changes would seriously hurt them financially or would disrupt their operations. Usually, most pregnancy accommodations are pretty simple anyway. Courts have approved accommodations as simple as giving cashiers a stool to use for their workday. Pregnant nurses usually get lighter duties and it works out just fine. These are small changes that any business can manage, not the dramatic overhauls that would put a company underwater.
One of the best parts of this law is that the pregnancy accommodations are inherently temporary. Employers have to make adjustments only for the period that you actually need them. Once you’re able to return to your normal work duties, the workplace goes right back to the way that it was before. It’s a simple process that works out for everyone involved and the whole system functions as it should.
Your FMLA Rights and Job Protection
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is the law that gives the right to take time off work after you have a baby. It guarantees you twelve weeks of unpaid leave and your employer legally has to hold your position for you while you’re gone. Twelve weeks without a paycheck doesn’t sound generous. The protection it gives can make a big difference for families who need it though.
FMLA protection isn’t available to everyone who might need it. The company you work for has to have a minimum of fifty employees and all of them need to work within 75 miles of your location. On top of that requirement, you need 12 months of employment history with them. The hour requirement is another hurdle. It requires 1,250 hours in the past year and it works out to full-time employment for the whole year.
Many employees believe that the FMLA only applies after the baby is born. But that’s wrong. You can use it for prenatal appointments and pregnancy complications as well. If your doctor tells you that you need bed rest or if severe morning sickness prevents you from doing your job, FMLA will protect your position. You can even split up the time and take it in separate chunks instead of twelve weeks straight if that arrangement makes more sense for your family.
The Department of Labor takes FMLA violations seriously and they frequently go after companies that retaliate against employees for taking their protected leave. Your employer has to give you back either your exact same position or an identical one when you come back to work. The pay has to be the same and so do all your benefits.
FMLA runs at the same time as any leave programs your employer already has which means they overlap instead of adding extra time to one another. Your state could also have its own family leave laws and these might give you better protection than what the federal government requires.
Pregnancy Bias in Your Workplace
Pregnancy discrimination at work can sneak up on you in ways that aren’t always obvious. Employers know better than to come right out and say that they’re treating you differently because you’re pregnant. The reality tends to be far more hidden and harder to see which makes it very hard to prove. You share the news about your pregnancy and within a week or two your schedule gets shuffled around for no apparent reason. Meetings that you always attended before now take place without anyone telling you. Your manager starts to question your commitment to the company, even though that was never a problem in the past.
These warning signs creep up on you bit by bit. That training opportunity that you’d been waiting months for goes to somebody else with half your experience. Your performance reviews start to include criticism about issues that were never a problem before your pregnancy announcement. Coworkers make little comments about “pregnancy brain” whenever you do anything wrong, even though everyone else makes the exact same mistakes all of the time.
Workplace discrimination against pregnant women has actually become worse over time and the numbers back this up. The EEOC tracked a 50% spike in pregnancy discrimination claims over just the past 20 years. Numbers like that mean that businesses across the board are still struggling with how they treat pregnant employees.
It is important to point out something up front. Not every negative situation that happens to a pregnant employee automatically counts as discrimination under the law. Employers do have legitimate reasons to let employees go sometimes. Being pregnant when layoffs roll around doesn’t make your termination illegal by itself. What actually crosses the line is when an employer specifically targets you because of your pregnancy and then tries to cover it up with excuses about performance problems or budget constraints or other made-up justifications. The smartest move you can make is to watch for patterns that show you’re receiving worse treatment than your non-pregnant colleagues in similar positions.
Make Your EEOC Complaint Count
When you file a pregnancy discrimination complaint, you need to know about strict deadlines. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) needs you to file within 180 days of when the discrimination took place. That deadline is firm and it starts from that specific day. Some states have their own fair employment agencies, though, and they give you more time. You have 300 days to file your complaint in those states instead of the standard 180.
The best part about a discrimination complaint is that you don’t need to file it twice. Filing with your state agency means they’ll automatically forward all your paperwork to the EEOC on your behalf. The same goes for the reverse situation. Filing with the EEOC first means they’ll make sure your state agency receives copies of all your documents. Either way, you’re covered with just a single filing.
Evidence collection takes serious effort so you should start well before you file anything. Save every email that mentions your pregnancy. Hold onto all your accommodation requests too. Your performance reviews are especially important here. Pull together all your reviews from the months before you announced your pregnancy. Then pull together everything that came after the announcement. If your ratings suddenly dropped after you shared the news, that pattern could strengthen your case substantially. Documentation like this can make the difference when you try to prove what actually happened.
Witness statements from coworkers can really strengthen your case and it’s worth your time to ask around for anyone who is willing to document what they saw or heard. These statements carry significant weight in discrimination cases. You also need to document every accommodation request you make and track how your employer responds. Even verbal denials deserve documentation. Write down the date, list who was present and record what was actually said.
The EEOC doesn’t mess around with pregnancy discrimination cases and the settlements they get can be pretty eye-opening. The EEOC usually tries mediation first since it’s a faster way to get everyone on the same page. When mediation doesn’t work out, then they’ll go ahead and do an investigation. Once the investigation ends, they’ll give you something called a right-to-sue letter if you want to take your case to court.
Most employees have no idea just how much workplace protection they actually have when they file discrimination complaints. Your employer can’t legally punish you for speaking up. If they do try anything negative against you because of your complaint, the law calls that retaliation and treats it as a separate violation.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
If you’ve been discriminated against at work for having an abortion, contact a discrimination lawyer to discuss your case. Use LegalMatch to find the right discrimination lawyer for your needs.
Federal pregnancy laws work together in ways you wouldn’t expect as you start to look into how they actually work. These laws create layers of protection that reinforce one another and cover almost every workplace situation an expecting mother might run into.
Some women only need small adjustments to make their jobs manageable during pregnancy. Maybe they need a stool to sit on as they work or an extra break here and there. Other women face managers who suddenly think a pregnant employee doesn’t fit the company’s image anymore. These managers might try to move pregnant workers into back offices or storage rooms where customers won’t see them.
Federal law has your back in either situation and has the tools to fight back when an employer tries to pull something like this. Most businesses will fall in line once they understand what the law actually requires of them. A calm conversation where you explain your rights and the accommodations that you need can resolve a lot of these problems without drama. And if your employer still doesn’t cooperate after that conversation, federal enforcement agencies are there to back you up and help you get the protection that you deserve.
The challenge is that, even after you learn all of the relevant laws and regulations, the process of standing up for yourself at work can be very draining. Pregnancy already comes with morning sickness and frequent doctor visits. There’s also everything else that you need to do to get ready for a new baby.
An experienced employment lawyer can change the game. Using LegalMatch’s services, pregnant workers can connect with attorneys who specifically handle discrimination cases. These lawyers have seen every possible variation of pregnancy-related workplace problems. They know just what documentation you need to build a strong case. They know the EEOC complaint process inside and out and they know which negotiation strategies actually work with stubborn employers. As they take care of all of the legal paperwork and deadlines, you can put your energy where it belongs, on your health and on preparing for your family’s newest addition.
