The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) represents the most significant expansion of pregnancy-related workplace protections in decades. Signed into law in December 2022 and effective June 27, 2023, the PWFA fills a critical gap that existed between two older statutes—the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—by creating an affirmative obligation for employers to accommodate limitations arising from pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. For HR professionals, understanding the PWFA’s scope, requirements, and interaction with existing law is essential to managing accommodation requests lawfully and avoiding EEOC charges in what is already one of the most actively enforced areas of employment law.

How the PWFA Differs from the PDA and ADA

The PDA (1978) prohibits pregnancy discrimination but does not require accommodations. The ADA requires accommodations for disabilities but many pregnancy-related limitations—morning sickness, back pain, fatigue—did not qualify as "disabilities" under the ADA’s definition. The PWFA closes that gap by requiring reasonable accommodations for limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions regardless of whether those limitations qualify as ADA disabilities.

Understanding the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

The PWFA covers all private and public sector employers with 15 or more employees, as well as Congress and federal agencies. It protects "qualified employees"—a term defined under the PWFA somewhat differently than under the ADA. Under the PWFA, an employee is qualified even if they are temporarily unable to perform one or more essential functions of the position, provided the inability is temporary, the employee could perform the essential functions in the near future, and the inability can be reasonably accommodated. This is a major departure from the ADA, which requires the employee to be able to perform essential functions with or without accommodation.

The EEOC issued final regulations interpreting the PWFA in April 2024, providing detailed guidance on what constitutes a "related medical condition." The regulations explicitly include: current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential pregnancy, lactation, fertility treatments, contraception use, menstruation, menopause, termination of pregnancy (including miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion), and any physical or mental condition related to these. The breadth of this list means HR teams must treat a far wider range of medical circumstances as potentially triggering PWFA accommodation obligations.

Responsibilities of HR Teams

HR teams are the frontline administrators of PWFA compliance. The responsibilities are both proactive and reactive. Proactively, HR must ensure that all accommodation-related policies and procedures have been updated to reflect PWFA requirements—not just ADA/FMLA processes. Many organizations’ existing accommodation policies were built around the ADA’s "disability" framework, which requires a showing of substantial impairment. PWFA accommodation requests do not require that showing; an employee experiencing normal pregnancy fatigue is entitled to engage in the interactive process, even if their condition would never qualify as an ADA disability.

Key HR responsibilities include:

  • Updating the employee handbook, accommodation policy, and manager training materials to specifically address PWFA rights and procedures
  • Posting the updated EEOC "Know Your Rights" poster, which reflects PWFA protections, in all covered workplaces
  • Training managers and supervisors to recognize PWFA accommodation requests—which may be informal and do not require the employee to mention the PWFA by name—and to route them promptly to HR
  • Establishing a consistent, documented interactive process for every PWFA accommodation request
  • Maintaining records of accommodation requests, the interactive process, decisions made, and the rationale for any denial
  • Monitoring for retaliation risk: the PWFA expressly prohibits retaliation against employees who request accommodations, oppose PWFA violations, or participate in PWFA proceedings

No Magic Words Required

An employee does not need to say "I am requesting an accommodation under the PWFA" to trigger the employer’s obligation to engage in the interactive process. If an employee tells a manager that they are pregnant and having difficulty standing for long periods, that is sufficient to initiate the process. Train every manager to recognize these triggers and escalate to HR immediately rather than making ad-hoc decisions.

What Counts as a Reasonable Accommodation?

The EEOC’s final regulations identify a set of accommodations that are presumptively reasonable—meaning the EEOC will consider an employer’s refusal to provide these as presumptively unlawful unless the employer can demonstrate undue hardship. These include:

  • Allowing the employee to carry or keep water near them and drink as needed
  • Additional restroom breaks beyond standard policy
  • Allowing the employee to sit when their position normally requires standing, or to stand when it normally requires sitting
  • Breaks to eat and drink

Beyond these presumptively reasonable accommodations, the EEOC expects employers to consider a broad range of adjustments through the interactive process. These include: modified work schedules (later start times, flexible hours), permission to work remotely for roles where remote work is feasible, temporary reassignment to a light-duty or vacant position, leave for prenatal appointments and related medical visits, modification of uniform or dress code requirements for physical comfort, and temporary suspension of certain job duties (including those that require lifting, exposure to chemicals, or prolonged physical exertion).

The interactive process under the PWFA does not require the employer to provide the employee’s preferred accommodation—only an effective one. However, the employer must genuinely consider the employee’s request, explain in writing why an alternative is being provided if the requested accommodation is denied, and document the full discussion.

Defining Undue Hardship Under the PWFA

The PWFA adopts the ADA’s definition of undue hardship: "an action requiring significant difficulty or expense" for the employer. The four-factor analysis considers: (1) the nature and cost of the accommodation; (2) the overall financial resources of the facility and the employer; (3) the type of operation and the composition of the workforce; and (4) the impact of the accommodation on the facility’s operations.

Critically, the PWFA’s undue hardship bar is high. The EEOC has stated that for the four presumptively reasonable accommodations described above, it will be "very difficult" for employers to establish undue hardship. Courts interpreting analogous ADA undue hardship claims have consistently required employers to provide concrete financial data—not speculative operational concerns—to support a denial. HR teams should document the specific, quantified business impact of a requested accommodation before concluding that it constitutes undue hardship, and should consult employment counsel before denying any PWFA accommodation request on this basis.

The PWFA and the Hiring Process

The PWFA applies from the point of hire through the entire employment relationship—including the application and selection process. An employer may not refuse to hire a candidate because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition if the candidate could perform the essential functions of the position with a reasonable accommodation. Hiring managers must not ask about pregnancy status, plan to become pregnant, or related medical conditions during the interview process, and must evaluate candidates on their qualifications for the role, not assumptions about future accommodation needs.

The pre-employment implications are significant for sourcing and onboarding workflows. Job descriptions should be reviewed to ensure that essential functions are accurately described and that "essential" functions are genuinely essential—not simply traditional or convenient. Functions that could be reassigned temporarily without undue hardship should not be listed as essential if the accommodation analysis may depend on that distinction.

Track PWFA Accommodations with Treegarden

Treegarden’s HR platform provides customizable workflows for managing accommodation requests from initial intake through resolution—capturing the interactive process documentation, storing decisions with rationale, and generating audit-ready records. For HR teams managing PWFA, ADA, and FMLA requests simultaneously, a centralized system eliminates the risk of inconsistent treatment and provides the paper trail needed to defend against EEOC charges.

Best Practices for HR Teams: A PWFA Compliance Checklist

The following checklist reflects current EEOC guidance and best practices for PWFA compliance as of 2026:

  • Confirm that your EEOC "Know Your Rights" poster is the updated version that includes PWFA protections
  • Revise your accommodation policy to explicitly cover pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions as separate PWFA-triggering categories, distinct from ADA disabilities
  • Update manager training to include PWFA-specific recognition triggers, escalation steps, and prohibited conduct (denial without interactive process, retaliation, forced leave)
  • Create a PWFA intake form that employees can use to initiate accommodation requests; include space for the employee to describe the limitation, the requested adjustment, and any supporting information they wish to provide
  • Establish a written interactive process protocol: who initiates it, what documentation is collected, who has decision authority, what the response timeline is (aim for no more than 10 business days from request to initial response)
  • Build a log of all PWFA requests, outcomes, and any follow-up actions in a secure, access-controlled HR system
  • Review your anti-retaliation training to confirm it covers PWFA-specific protected activities
  • Audit any forced-leave policies that automatically remove pregnant employees from work before a certain gestational stage; these policies are presumptively unlawful under the PWFA unless specific essential functions genuinely cannot be accommodated

PWFA in the Broader Compliance Landscape

The PWFA operates alongside—not instead of—the PDA, ADA, FMLA, Title VII, and applicable state laws. Some states have pregnancy accommodation laws that are more protective than the PWFA; California’s FEHA, New York’s Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act (which preceded and is broader than the federal law), and New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination all provide additional protections that employers must layer on top of the federal baseline. HR teams with multi-state workforces should map the applicable state requirements for each location and ensure their policies and training reflect the most protective standard applicable at each site.

Treegarden’s configurable HR workflows allow organizations to build jurisdiction-specific accommodation processes that adapt to state-law variations, ensuring that employees in each location receive the protections they are entitled to under whichever law provides the highest standard of protection.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act?

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is a US federal law that requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers unless it causes undue hardship.

Who is covered under the PWFA?

The PWFA applies to employers with 15 or more employees and protects qualified employees from discrimination related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

What are examples of reasonable accommodations under the PWFA?

Reasonable accommodations may include modified work schedules, ergonomic support, temporary reassignment, or lighter duties, depending on the employee’s specific needs.

Can an employer deny an accommodation request under the PWFA?

An employer can only deny an accommodation request if it would impose an undue hardship, which is defined as causing significant difficulty or expense to the business.

How can HR teams ensure compliance with the PWFA?

HR teams should update policies, train managers, establish clear processes for accommodation requests, and use tools like Treegarden to streamline compliance tracking.