Being fired for being pregnant is illegal under federal law. Your employer cannot terminate you, demote you, cut your hours, or push you out because you are pregnant, have recently given birth, or have a related medical condition. Pregnancy does not, however, make you untouchable: an employer can still let you go for legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with your pregnancy. The line between the two is where most disputes live.
The Federal Laws That Make Pregnancy-Based Firing Illegal
Three federal statutes work together here. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans employment discrimination based on sex.1U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 clarified that discrimination “because of sex” includes discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and requires your employer to treat you the same as any other worker who is similar in their ability or inability to do the job.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect on June 27, 2023, added a separate right to reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would cause the employer undue hardship.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act This matters directly to whether you can be fired: if the reason your employer is talking about termination is that you can no longer lift 50 pounds, stand for a full shift, or work overtime, the PWFA generally requires the employer to consider accommodations first. Options include schedule changes, a stool to sit on, help with lifting, additional breaks, temporary reassignment, telework, or leave for medical appointments and recovery from childbirth.
These protections apply to employers in both the private and public sectors with 15 or more employees.4U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act5U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Coverage of Business/Private Employers If your employer has fewer than 15 workers, federal pregnancy discrimination law does not cover you, but many state laws reach employers with far fewer employees. Some states set the threshold as low as one.
When an Employer Can Legally Fire a Pregnant Worker
The law prevents discriminatory termination. It does not guarantee your job no matter what. An employer can still fire you for reasons genuinely unrelated to your pregnancy, just as they could fire any other employee. Legitimate reasons include:
- Company-wide layoffs, where a reduction in force affects your position and the selection criteria were applied consistently across the organization
- Documented performance problems that existed before you disclosed your pregnancy, where the employer can show it would have taken the same action regardless
- Misconduct such as theft, harassment of coworkers, or safety violations
- Elimination of your specific role for legitimate business reasons, where no comparable position exists
The employer bears the burden of proving the decision had nothing to do with your pregnancy. Timing tends to be decisive. If you were meeting every performance target for years and suddenly started receiving negative reviews the week after announcing your pregnancy, the pattern speaks for itself. Employers who build a paper trail of problems only after learning about a pregnancy face an uphill battle defending their decision.
Warning Signs Your Firing Was Really About Pregnancy
Employers rarely announce a discriminatory motive. What they do instead is worth watching for.
Retaliation is independently illegal. The PWFA bars employers from taking adverse action against you for requesting or using a pregnancy-related accommodation.3U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Adverse action includes demotion, schedule cuts, exclusion from projects, unwarranted negative performance reviews, or any change that makes your job worse because you spoke up. The same anti-retaliation principle applies under the FMLA: your employer cannot fire you, discipline you, or hold it against you for taking leave or filing a complaint about being denied leave.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2615 – Prohibited Acts
Then there is constructive discharge. This happens when an employer doesn’t technically fire you but makes your working conditions so intolerable that any reasonable person would quit. Stripping away your responsibilities, reassigning you to demeaning tasks, pressuring you to take unpaid leave early, or refusing to restore your duties after you disclose a pregnancy can all support a constructive discharge claim. Quitting under those circumstances does not necessarily defeat your legal case. The EEOC recognizes constructive discharge as a form of discrimination.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices
Suspicious timing, a sudden shift in tone from managers who previously praised your work, denial of accommodations that were routinely granted to other workers with temporary limitations, and comments about your commitment or reliability once you announced the pregnancy all count as evidence. Save all of it.
Can You Be Fired While on Leave?
The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible workers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for pregnancy, childbirth, recovery, and bonding with a new child.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act Leave can start before delivery if a pregnancy-related health condition prevents you from working, and it continues through postpartum recovery.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28Q – Taking Leave from Work for Birth, Placement, and Bonding with a Child
To qualify, you must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before your leave begins, and work for an employer with at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite. During FMLA leave, your employer must continue your group health insurance on the same terms as if you were still working. When leave ends, you must be restored to the same position or one that is virtually identical in pay, benefits, and responsibilities.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
An employer can still terminate you while you are on FMLA leave, but only if the reason is entirely unrelated to the leave itself. If your whole department is eliminated in a layoff that would have hit you regardless, that can be lawful. Firing you because you took leave, or timing the layoff to fall during your leave when the underlying decision was about your absence, is not.
The FMLA’s 50-employee threshold leaves out many workers at smaller companies. If you don’t qualify for FMLA leave, your pregnancy discrimination protections under the PDA and PWFA still apply, and some states provide leave rights with lower employee thresholds.
What to Do If You’re Fired
Gather Your Evidence Right Away
Before you file anything, organize what you have. Keep a chronological log of interactions with management and HR about your pregnancy and job status, including dates, names, and what was said. Save copies of performance evaluations, commendations, emails, and any written communications that show how your treatment changed after your pregnancy became known. If non-pregnant coworkers in similar situations were treated more favorably (kept on during a layoff, given accommodations, allowed light duty), document those comparisons specifically. Identify colleagues who witnessed discriminatory behavior or heard biased comments and could serve as witnesses.
Watch the Filing Deadline
You have a limited window. In most cases, you must file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC within 180 days of the discriminatory act. If your state or locality has its own anti-discrimination law covering the same conduct, that deadline extends to 300 days.10U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Complaint Miss the window and you lose the right to file with the EEOC entirely. Most states do have their own employment discrimination laws, so the 300-day deadline applies to the majority of workers, but don’t assume it applies to you without checking.
File the Charge
You can file a charge of discrimination through the EEOC’s Public Portal, which walks you through a series of questions and schedules an intake interview.11U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination An EEOC staff member prepares the formal charge (EEOC Form 5) based on the information you provide, and you review and sign it online. You can also visit a regional field office in person. The charge should include the employer’s legal name, its number of employees, the specific managers involved, and a clear description of how you were treated differently because of your pregnancy.
After filing, your employer is notified. The EEOC may offer voluntary mediation, and if that doesn’t resolve the dispute, the charge moves to a full investigation.12U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mediation Investigations averaged roughly 11 months as of 2023. When the investigation ends, the EEOC either finds reasonable cause or dismisses the charge and issues a Notice of Right to Sue, which gives you 90 days to file a lawsuit in federal court.13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Can Expect After a Charge is Filed If you’d rather move faster, you can request the Right to Sue notice yourself once 180 days have passed since filing.14U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Filing a Lawsuit The 90-day deadline after receiving the notice is strict, and missing it can bar your case entirely.
What You Can Recover
A successful pregnancy discrimination claim aims to put you back where you would have been if the discrimination never happened. Remedies can include reinstatement to your former position, back pay for lost wages and benefits, and an order requiring the employer to stop the discriminatory practice.15U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Remedies for Employment Discrimination Beyond back pay, you may recover compensatory damages for out-of-pocket costs like job search expenses or medical bills, along with damages for emotional harm. Punitive damages are available in cases of especially egregious or reckless discrimination.
Federal law caps the combined total of compensatory and punitive damages based on employer size:
- 15 to 100 employees: $50,000
- 101 to 200 employees: $100,000
- 201 to 500 employees: $200,000
- More than 500 employees: $300,000
These caps apply per person and cover compensatory and punitive damages only. Back pay, attorney fees, expert witness fees, and court costs are not subject to these limits.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment State discrimination laws sometimes allow higher damages or have no caps at all, which is one reason many attorneys file claims under both federal and state law.