Pregnant worker accommodations are work adjustments such as more frequent breaks or light carry duty that allow pregnant women to do their jobs safely, without jeopardizing their health or the health of their babies.
Benefits to Employers
- Increases productivity
- Provides benefit to employee at no– or low-cost to employer
- Improves recruitment
- Increases retention, reducing turnover costs
- Reduces employee absenteeism
- Reduces health care costs Reduces litigation costs Increases diversity Increases safety
Increases employee commitment and satisfaction
Benefits to Children
- Improves unborn baby’s health and safety, including lower risk of preterm birth, low birthweight or miscarriage
Benefits to Parents/Families
- Improves mother’s health and safety and lowers risk for miscarriage
- Improves family economic security
Most often, women need minor accommodations during work to protect their health while pregnant, according to a national survey of more than 1,000 US women who have given birth.
The survey, conducted by Childbirth Connection program of the National Partnership for Women and Families, found that:
- Seventy-one percent of women surveyed said they needed more frequent breaks during their pregnancy.
- Sixty-one percent of those surveyed said they needed a schedule modification or time off to obtain critical health care.
- A change in job duties, such as less lifting or more sitting, was needed by 53 percent of women surveyed.
- And 40 percent said they needed some other type of workplace adjustment as a result of a pregnancy-related condition.
Pregnant women who hold part-time, lower- wage, lower-skilled or more physically demanding jobs are more likely to need some kind of minor accommodation at work. When requests for adjustments are denied, low- wage workers are more likely to be forced to choose between their job and the health of themselves or their child.
Range of Practices in the United States
The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and requires that employers treat pregnant women the same as other employees who receive accommodations for health-related reasons. For example, an employer that provides light duty to other employees cannot deny light duty to a pregnant worker.
Employees with serious health conditions related to pregnancy also may have legal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For example, a woman who develops gestational diabetes, a temporary condition triggered by pregnancy, may be entitled to take breaks to check her blood sugar or have a snack, just as someone with diabetes outside of pregnancy would.
Or a pregnant woman who cannot stand or lift because of severe back pain should be provided a chair or light duty assignment just as other employees suffering from severe back pain due to injury are accommodated.
Though 22 states have passed laws further protecting pregnant workers, Montana has not.
Despite federal and state laws, the National Partnership for Women and Children estimates that nearly one-quarter of a million women are denied their requests for pregnancy accommodations each year, and the number of pregnancy discrimination claims filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been steadily increasing for the past 20 years.
