Pregnant Workers and the PUMP Act: What Employers Owe
Usually we talk about retention and hiring. Today let's take the compliance side, because two federal laws changed what employers owe pregnant and nursing employees — and a lot of small businesses still haven't caught up.
Our HR expert Karen Moss walked me through the essentials.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
The PWFA took effect June 27, 2023, and the EEOC's final regulations implementing it took effect June 18, 2024.
It requires covered employers — those with 15 or more employees — to provide reasonable accommodations for a worker's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation would cause the employer undue hardship.
If that framing sounds familiar, it should. It works much the way ADA accommodations do: a conversation, a reasonable adjustment, and a genuine hardship test rather than a convenience test.
What a Reasonable Accommodation Looks Like
In practice, most of these are small and inexpensive:
The ability to sit at a workstation
More frequent bathroom breaks
Being allowed to drink water at a workstation
Closer parking
Flexible hours
Appropriately sized uniforms and safety apparel
Additional break time to use the bathroom, eat, and rest
Light duty
Leave to recover from childbirth
Reassignment away from strenuous activities, or from exposure to compounds that aren't safe during pregnancy
Look at that list again. Almost none of it costs real money. What it costs is attention — and knowing the obligation exists before someone has to ask twice.
The PUMP Act
The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act took effect December 29, 2022.
It requires employers to provide a reasonable break each time a nursing employee needs to express milk, for one year after the child's birth. You must also provide a place — not a bathroom — that is shielded from view and free from intrusion.
Companies with fewer than 50 employees can be exempt from the PUMP Act's provisions if they can demonstrate that compliance would impose an undue hardship. That exemption is narrower than most owners assume, so don't lean on it casually.
If You're in Georgia, Your Bar Is Higher
Georgia has had its own lactation break law since August 5, 2020, and it goes further than the federal requirement in three ways:
It applies to all employees
The break time must be paid
There is no one-year limit on granting lactation breaks
If you operate in Georgia, follow the Georgia standard. It's stricter, and meeting it satisfies the federal one.
What to Do
Check three things this month. Does your handbook describe an accommodation process someone could actually follow? Do you have a space that meets the PUMP Act requirement — not a bathroom, private, and available when needed? And do your managers know to route a request to HR rather than deciding on the spot?
That last one is where most problems start.
Want us to review your accommodation policies? Grab a free 30-minute session with one of our HR experts.