My Employee Just Told Me They're Pregnant: What Do I Need to Know?
An employee just told you she is pregnant. Your first response matters, both for the relationship and for your legal exposure. This is a situation where good intentions are not enough. You need to know what your obligations are and, just as importantly, what you cannot do.
Federal Protections That Apply
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against employees on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. This means you cannot make employment decisions like hiring, firing, promotion, pay, or job assignments based on an employee’s pregnancy.
Note the employee threshold: the PDA applies to employers with 15 or more employees. If you have fewer, the federal PDA may not apply. However, many state pregnancy discrimination laws apply to smaller employers. Check your state’s law.
The PWFA: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
As of June 2023, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions, similar to the accommodation framework under the ADA. This is a significant expansion of protections. Common accommodations include modified duties, more frequent breaks, temporary relief from heavy lifting, and schedule adjustments.
The PUMP Act
The PUMP Act, effective 2023, requires most employers to provide reasonable break time and a private space (not a bathroom) for employees to express breast milk for up to one year after the child’s birth. This applies to virtually all employers, including small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, with limited exceptions.
FMLA
If you have 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the work location and the employee has worked for you for at least 12 months and 1,250 hours, they are eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected FMLA leave for the birth and care of a child. For a closer look at how FMLA intersects with day-to-day management, see Employee on FMLA Is Missing Deadlines: What Can I Do?.
State Laws May Add More
Many states have pregnancy leave laws that apply to smaller employers than FMLA, provide longer leave periods, or require paid leave. States including California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and others have robust paid family leave programs. Check your state’s requirements, as they may be significantly more generous than the federal baseline.
What You Should Do
• Respond warmly and professionally, and congratulations are appropriate
• Ask how you can support them in continuing their work
• Begin a conversation about anticipated leave timing when appropriate, not immediately, and not in a way that suggests you are already planning around their absence
• Connect them with HR information about leave benefits and their rights
• Document any accommodation requests and your response to them
What You Cannot Do
• Reassign the employee to a less desirable role or reduce their hours based on the pregnancy
• Pass them over for a promotion, raise, or opportunity because of the pregnancy
• Ask about their plans to return to work as a condition of keeping their current role
• Deny a reasonable accommodation request related to the pregnancy without engaging in an interactive process
• Terminate or lay off the employee while they are pregnant or on maternity leave without a clearly documented, legitimate, non-discriminatory reason
The Accommodation Conversation
If the employee requests an accommodation such as lighter duties, modified schedule, or more frequent breaks, your obligation is to engage in a good-faith interactive process to determine whether the accommodation is reasonable. You are not required to provide every accommodation requested, but you are required to discuss it seriously and consider alternatives if the specific request is not feasible.
Document the request, your response, and the outcome of the conversation. For guidance on the written policies that should be in place before these situations arise, see HR Policies Every Small Business Needs.
Planning for the Leave
Once you know leave is coming, work with the employee to plan for coverage. Avoid making the employee feel like a burden for taking leave they are legally entitled to. Approach it as a logistics question: what will need to be covered, who can cover it, and what does the employee need to do before leaving to set up a smooth transition?
Document the leave plan and communicate it to the team in a way that is matter-of-fact and professional.
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Questions about this or other HR topics? Visit pragmatichrgroup.com for more resources.
