The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA): Who Is Covered and What It Requires

10/21/2025

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is a federal law that requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for a qualified employee's or applicant's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship. The law took effect on June 27, 2023, and the EEOC's implementing regulations took effect on June 18, 2024. Unlike earlier federal law, the PWFA creates a direct duty to accommodate, even when the condition is not a disability and even when the employer accommodates no one else.

Why the PWFA Was Created

Before the PWFA, two federal laws touched pregnancy at work, and neither fully covered accommodation.

• The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 made it unlawful to discriminate because of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. It did not create a free-standing right to accommodation. A pregnant worker generally had to show that the employer accommodated other workers who were similar in their ability or inability to work, the comparison framework the Supreme Court applied in Young v. UPS (2015).
• The Americans with Disabilities Act requires accommodation of disabilities, but a typical pregnancy is not a disability. Only some complications, such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia, might qualify.

That left a gap. A worker with severe morning sickness, a lifting restriction or a need for more frequent breaks during an otherwise healthy pregnancy might have no clear right to those modest changes, and some were pushed onto unpaid leave or out of their jobs. The PWFA closes that gap by requiring accommodation of pregnancy-related limitations on their own terms.

Who Must Comply

The PWFA applies to private employers and state and local government employers with 15 or more employees, counted the same way as under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It also covers federal agencies, congressional employers, employment agencies and labor organizations. In short, if an organization is covered by Title VII, it is generally covered by the PWFA.

Many states have their own pregnancy accommodation laws, some of which cover smaller employers or impose additional requirements. Where both apply, the employer must meet both. Our guide to PWFA requirements for small businesses covers the threshold questions.

Who Is Protected

The PWFA protects qualified employees and job applicants. Applicants matter: an employer cannot refuse to hire someone because they will need a pregnancy-related accommodation, and must consider accommodations during the hiring process itself.

The PWFA's definition of "qualified" is broader than the ADA's. A person is qualified if they can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation, the familiar ADA test. But under the PWFA, they are also qualified if:

• their inability to perform an essential function is temporary,
• they could perform it in the near future, and
• the inability can be reasonably accommodated.

Under the EEOC's regulation, for a current pregnancy, the ability to perform the function is generally presumed to return in the near future if it would return within about 40 weeks of the function being suspended. So a warehouse worker who temporarily cannot meet a 50-pound lifting requirement during pregnancy can remain qualified if that duty can be temporarily suspended, reassigned or modified.

The PWFA protects the worker's own limitations. It does not require accommodation so that an employee can care for a family member's pregnancy-related condition, although the FMLA or state leave laws may cover that.

What Conditions Are Covered

A known limitation is a physical or mental condition related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions that the employee or their representative has communicated to the employer. It does not need to meet the ADA definition of disability, and it can be modest. Examples include:

• Common pregnancy symptoms: morning sickness, fatigue, back pain, swelling, sciatica.
• Complications: gestational diabetes, pregnancy-related hypertension, preeclampsia, anemia.
• Childbirth recovery, including recovery from a cesarean delivery.
• Lactation, including breaks and a private space to pump.
• Pregnancy loss, including miscarriage.
• Mental health conditions such as postpartum depression or anxiety.

The EEOC's regulation defines "related medical conditions" broadly and, as originally issued, included abortion. That part of the rule has been the focus of litigation; see the section on the rule's status below.

What Accommodations Look Like

A reasonable accommodation is a change to the work environment or to how things are usually done that lets the employee keep working. It needs to be effective, not the most elaborate option. Many pregnancy accommodations cost little or nothing:

• More frequent or longer breaks to rest, eat, drink or use the restroom
• A stool or chair for a job normally done standing
• Keeping water at the workstation
• Schedule changes, part-time work or later start times to manage nausea or fatigue
• Temporarily excusing heavy lifting, strenuous tasks or exposure to certain chemicals
• Telework, where the job allows it
• Time off for prenatal and postnatal appointments
• Uniforms and safety equipment that fit
• Temporary suspension of an essential function, as described above
• Leave for recovery from childbirth, paid or unpaid as the employer's policies provide

The EEOC's regulation singles out four modifications that will in virtually all cases be reasonable and not an undue hardship: allowing an employee to carry or keep water nearby and drink, additional restroom breaks, sitting or standing as needed, and breaks to eat and drink. For more examples, see our guide to reasonable pregnancy accommodations.

Undue hardship means significant difficulty or expense, assessed against the employer's resources and operations, as under the ADA. Because many requests are low-cost and short-term, the defense is hard to establish for routine accommodations.

What Employers Must Not Do

The statute makes it unlawful for a covered employer to:

• Fail to make a reasonable accommodation for a qualified worker's known limitations, absent undue hardship.
• Require a worker to accept an accommodation other than one arrived at through the interactive process.
• Deny an employment opportunity because the worker needs a reasonable accommodation.
• Require a worker to take leave, paid or unpaid, if another reasonable accommodation would let them keep working.
• Take adverse action against a worker for requesting or using a reasonable accommodation.

Retaliation against anyone who opposes a PWFA violation or participates in a proceeding, and coercion or interference with PWFA rights, are also prohibited.

The PWFA Interactive Process

Like the ADA, the PWFA expects employers to engage in an interactive process to identify an accommodation, but the EEOC's regulation makes clear it should often be simple and quick. For a request for more restroom breaks, it may be one short conversation.

• Respond promptly. Unnecessary delay can itself be a failure to accommodate.
• Accept plain language. A request does not need to be in writing or mention the PWFA.
• Limit documentation. An employer may seek supporting documentation only when it is reasonable under the circumstances, and only the minimum needed to confirm the limitation and the need for a change. It is generally not reasonable to require documentation when the pregnancy is obvious and the request is one of the four simple modifications above, when the request relates to lactation, or when the employee has already provided enough information.
• Consider interim accommodations while information is being gathered, so the employee can keep working safely.
• Keep medical information confidential, stored separately from the personnel file.

For how the ADA version of this process works step by step, see our ADA interactive process guide.

Who Can Make a Request

The request can come from the employee or applicant, or from a representative acting for them: a family member, friend, health care provider or union representative. If a spouse calls a manager to say the employee has been placed on bed rest and needs to work from home, that call starts the process. Managers need to recognize third-party communications as requests and pass them to HR promptly.

PWFA vs the PDA and the ADA

	PDA	ADA	PWFA
Core duty	No discrimination because of pregnancy	Accommodate disabilities; no discrimination	Accommodate pregnancy-related limitations
Condition needed	Pregnancy, childbirth or related condition	Impairment that substantially limits a major life activity	Any known limitation related to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions
Accommodation right	Only by comparison with how others are treated	Yes, absent undue hardship	Yes, absent undue hardship
Temporary inability to perform an essential function	Not addressed	Generally not qualified	Can remain qualified

The three laws can apply to the same worker at once, alongside the FMLA. Our guides to when the PWFA and ADA both apply and coordinating the FMLA, ADA and PWFA cover the overlap.

The EEOC Rule and Its Litigation Status

The statute has been in force since June 27, 2023. The EEOC's final regulation, effective June 18, 2024, supplies the detailed definitions HR works with day to day, including "known limitation," "in the near future" and the documentation limits, and the EEOC has published an interpretive guidance appendix with examples.

The rule has been challenged in court. In 2025, a federal court in the Western District of Louisiana vacated the rule's provisions requiring accommodation of purely elective abortions. Separately, a federal court in Texas blocked enforcement of the PWFA against the State of Texas as an employer, in a challenge to how Congress passed the law. The rest of the regulation, and the statute's core accommodation duty, continue to apply to other employers.

For HR, the practical approach is to build policy on the statute, which is not in doubt, follow the regulation's process rules for documentation and interactive process, and check the EEOC's current position before relying on any contested provision. State law may independently require accommodations that the federal rule no longer does.

Enforcement and Liability

The EEOC enforces the PWFA using Title VII procedures. An employee generally must file a charge within 180 days of the violation, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a similar law. Available remedies mirror Title VII: back pay, compensatory and punitive damages subject to statutory caps, and attorney's fees. Punitive damages are not available against government employers.

The statute also contains a good-faith defense to damages in accommodation cases: where the employer shows it made good-faith efforts, in consultation with the employee, to identify an accommodation that would provide an equally effective opportunity without undue hardship, compensatory and punitive damages are not available. A well-documented interactive process is therefore protection as well as good practice.

A Compliance Checklist

• Update policies and handbooks to cover pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions explicitly, including how to request accommodation.
• Train managers to recognize requests, including informal and third-party ones, and to escalate them without making judgments, promises or unlawful inquiries.
• Stop requiring doctor's notes by default for simple, predictable requests.
• Never default to leave when another accommodation would let the employee keep working.
• Document each request, the dialogue and the outcome, without over-collecting medical information.
• Protect confidentiality of medical information.
• Check state law in every state where you have employees.
• Monitor the EEOC's position on contested provisions of the rule.

The PWFA Training & Certification Program covers these obligations for HR professionals, and the Certificate Program in FMLA, ADA, and PWFA Compliance treats the PWFA alongside the other two laws.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the PWFA in simple terms?

A federal law requiring employers with 15 or more employees to make reasonable changes at work for employees and applicants with limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the change would cause an undue hardship.

Does the PWFA apply to small businesses?

Not to employers with fewer than 15 employees. Those employers may still be covered by state or local pregnancy accommodation laws with lower thresholds.

Does the PWFA require paid leave?

No. Leave can be an accommodation, but the PWFA does not require it to be paid. Whether it is paid depends on the employer's policies and any applicable state or local law.

Can an employer require a doctor's note?

Only when documentation is reasonable under the circumstances, and then only the minimum needed. It is generally not reasonable for obvious pregnancy-related needs such as more restroom breaks, water at the workstation or the ability to sit.

How does the PWFA interact with the FMLA?

They run independently. The FMLA provides job-protected leave to eligible employees; the PWFA requires accommodations, including leave, for qualified workers regardless of FMLA eligibility. An employee who is not yet FMLA-eligible may still be entitled to leave as a PWFA accommodation.

Related Reading and Training

• PWFA compliance requirements
• PWFA vs the Pregnancy Discrimination Act
• FAQs about PWFA compliance