The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act - by Briana Capps, HR Coordinator

First… what is it?

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, commonly referred to as the PWFA, went into effect on June 27, 2023. It requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions… unless doing so would cause the employer undue hardship.

If that sounds familiar, it's because the framework mirrors the ADA. But here's the critical difference: the PWFA fills a gap that the ADA left open.

Under the ADA, an employee generally has to show they have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity. Pregnancy itself… a normal, healthy pregnancy- didn't always qualify. Which meant that pregnant employees who needed temporary accommodations were sometimes left without clear legal protection.

The PWFA fixes that. It says explicitly: pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions are covered. Full stop. You don't have to be experiencing a pregnancy complication to be entitled to an accommodation. The pregnancy itself is enough.

Who does this apply to?

Employers with 15 or more employees are covered under the PWFA.

If you're sitting at 15 employees or above… this applies to you. And if you're below that threshold right now but growing, you want to understand this before you hit it, not after.

What kinds of accommodations are we actually talking about?

This is where it gets practical. The PWFA covers a wide range of limitations and accommodations… broader than a lot of employers expect.

We're talking about things like:

More frequent or longer bathroom breaks. The ability to keep water at a workstation. A stool or chair for an employee who would otherwise be standing all day. Temporary reassignment away from tasks that involve heavy lifting, prolonged standing, or exposure to substances that aren't safe during pregnancy. Modified work schedules for prenatal appointments. Remote work where the job allows for it. Temporary light duty.

And here's one that catches employers off guard: the PWFA explicitly includes the ability to temporarily suspend one or more essential functions of a job as a possible accommodation. Meaning, in some circumstances, you may be required to temporarily excuse an employee from certain core job duties rather than deny an accommodation because the employee "can't do the job."

That is a significant shift from how a lot of employers have historically thought about accommodations.

Related medical conditions are covered too… and the list is longer than you think

The PWFA doesn't just cover the pregnancy itself. "Related medical conditions" is interpreted broadly and includes things like:

Miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Stillbirth. Postpartum depression. Lactation and pumping needs. Fertility treatments. Termination of pregnancy. Preeclampsia. Gestational diabetes. Complications from a C-section or difficult delivery.

If you have an employee navigating any of these situations and they need an accommodation at work… the PWFA is in play. These conversations are not just HR conversations. They are legally protected conversations that need to be handled carefully, consistently, and with proper documentation.

The interactive process… and why it matters

Like the ADA, the PWFA requires employers to engage in what's called the interactive process. That means when an employee requests an accommodation, or when you become aware that one might be needed… you can't just say yes or no and move on. You're supposed to have an actual conversation. A good-faith, documented conversation about what the employee needs, what the business can realistically provide, and how to get to a workable solution.

What you cannot do is ignore the request. What you cannot do is deny it without engaging. And what you definitely cannot do is take any adverse action … reduced hours, demotion, termination, reassignment to a less desirable role just because an employee requested an accommodation or because you assume their pregnancy will affect their ability to do their job.

That last part is important enough to say twice. You cannot make employment decisions based on assumptions about what a pregnant employee will or won't be able to handle. You engage, you discuss, you document, you accommodate where you can. That's the process.

How this intersects with laws you're already supposed to be following

The PWFA doesn't exist in a vacuum. It sits alongside a whole framework of existing protections that small business owners need to understand together… not as separate issues.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act has been around since 1978 and prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. The ADA may cover pregnancy complications that rise to the level of a disability. The PUMP Act, also relatively new, expanded protections for nursing employees, requiring employers to provide reasonable break time and a private space that isn't a bathroom for pumping at work. FMLA may be available for pregnancy-related conditions or bonding leave depending on your size and the employee's eligibility.

These laws interact with each other. An employee who is pregnant may have protections under multiple statutes simultaneously. How you handle a single situation could implicate several of them at once… which is exactly why this is more complicated than it looks and exactly why winging it is not a strategy.

The mistakes small businesses are most likely to make

Not recognizing a request as a request.

An employee mentions to their manager that they've been having a hard time with their pregnancy and needs to sit down more during their shift. The manager says "okay, sure" and moves on without documenting anything, without notifying HR, without engaging in any formal process. That informal conversation may have been an accommodation request. Treating it informally doesn't make the obligation go away.

Assuming the employee can't do the job.

An employee announces a pregnancy and a manager… with genuinely good intentions… starts pulling them off certain tasks, reducing their responsibilities, or suggesting they take leave before they've asked for any of it. That's not accommodation. That's assumption. And it's exactly the kind of thing that becomes a discrimination claim.

Denying accommodations without exploring alternatives.

An employee asks for something that doesn't work for your operation as described. That's not automatically a dead end. The interactive process exists for a reason… to find a workable solution, not just to deliver a yes or a no. If you're denying accommodation requests without genuinely exploring alternatives and documenting why those alternatives won't work, you're not meeting your obligation.

Treating similarly situated employees inconsistently.

If you would give a temporarily injured employee light duty or a modified schedule, you need to be offering the same consideration to a pregnant employee with similar limitations. Inconsistency here… even unintentional inconsistency… is where discrimination claims are born.

Not training your managers.

Your managers are the ones having these conversations on the front line. They are the ones an employee talks to first when they need something. If your managers don't know what the PWFA is, don't know what triggers an accommodation conversation, and don't know what they're and aren't allowed to say- you have a gap that is going to cost you eventually.

What you should have in place right now

If you're a covered employer and you don't have the following, this is your to-do list:

A written accommodation policy that specifically references the PWFA and related medical conditions.
A clear process for how accommodation requests are received, documented, and responded to.
Manager training on how to recognize a request, how to respond, and what not to say. Documentation practices that capture the interactive process… the conversations, the decisions, the reasoning.
A consistent approach that applies the same standard regardless of who is asking.

Why this is especially important for small businesses

In a large company, a pregnant employee's accommodation request goes to HR. There's a process, there's a person who handles it, there's documentation, there's consistency.

In a small business, that conversation often happens between the employee and their direct manager, or between the employee and the owner, with no formal process, no documentation, and no one who knows exactly what the law requires in that moment.

That's not a criticism. It's just the reality of how small businesses operate. But it means the risk of getting it wrong is higher, the likelihood that anyone is tracking these situations consistently is lower, and the consequences of a misstep fall directly on you.

The EEOC is actively enforcing it and has made clear that pregnancy accommodation is a priority. Small businesses are not exempt from that enforcement just because they're small.

The bottom line

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is not a technicality. It's a real law with real enforcement and real consequences for employers who aren't handling these situations correctly.

Your employees who are pregnant, who have recently given birth, who are nursing, who are navigating pregnancy loss or fertility treatments… they have rights in your workplace that are specific, protected, and actionable. How your managers respond when those conversations come up, whether you have a process to handle them properly, and whether you're documenting what you're doing and why those things matter enormously.

This is not an area where good intentions are enough. This is an area where process, consistency, and knowledge of the law are what actually protect you.

And if you're not sure your business is handling this correctly- that's worth finding out before you have to find out the hard way.

At InnovateHR, we help small businesses understand and implement their obligations under the PWFA and related laws… before a situation arises that makes the gaps obvious. If you're not sure your accommodation process is solid, let's take a look at it together.