If you are a pregnant worker, or a worker planning on becoming pregnant, you need to know about your workplace rights. Working while pregnant has become more common throughout the decades. While it was nearly unheard of for your grandparents or great-grandparents’ generations, since the 1950s, women have been working further and further into their pregnancies. If you are part of the nearly 60% of women who work in the United States, knowing your rights while pregnant can be invaluable to your health, safety, and career/financial success.
Working While Pregnant
More and more women are entering the workforce than ever before. Nearly 60% of all women in the United States work at least part-time, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ June 2024 report. According to Pew Research Center poll from 2015, these increase in pregnant workers have multiple contributing factors. First, as more women earn college degrees that allow for white-collar roles, the work becomes less physically strenuous. Not only does this let women work while pregnant, it also lets women work longer into their pregnancies.
Additionally, as the economy has grown over the last few decades, the workforce has naturally grown with it. While women prior to World War II were regulated to domestic labor (i.e., maids, nannies, cooks, and so forth) or some secretarial, nursing, or teaching jobs, today, women work in many fields. Recruiting women into these various other fields has been required to stay competitive in the broader global workforce.
Your Rights as a Pregnant Worker
In 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in the halls of Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. This law prevented employers from unfairly treating pregnant women in the workforce. This unfair treatment may have included termination, layoffs, or not providing reasonable workplace accommodations. In 2022, the 1978 law was updated with the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden. This update made it so that employers had to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers.
These reasonable accommodations include regulating how much heavy lifting a pregnant worker could do, alongside making sure that those with child could take extra breaks, had access to water and nutritional resources, places to sit, and weren’t exposed to extreme temperatures or weather. In addition, many workplaces were required to provide parking spaces closer to the employee entrance. If an employer was found guilty of violating any of these provisions, they could be sued by the pregnant employees.
So, in conclusion, if you are currently pregnant, or plan to become pregnant, while in the workforce, you should know your rights to protect yourself and your unborn child. There are many resources to help you understand the legal, financial, or medical aspects of these complicated issues, and hopefully this article has helped shed some light on these important topics.
Please note that information from this article should not be used to determine any legal, medical, or financial decisions. Please consult professionals in those fields for advice regarding those topics.
