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Hey, it's Mark and welcome back to another edition of the Employee Survival Guide. Today's topic Pregnant mothers shouldn't have to choose between their job and their child. The Pump Act and the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act were important legal wins for pregnant workers and nursing mothers. They

Why Mothers Should Not Choose

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gave employees clear rights to pump at work, request accommodations, and remain in the workplace during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery. However, as important as those laws are, they are only a floor. The next hurdle is not simply whether employers are complying with the law, but rather whether employers are providing employees with the support system necessary to thrive at work. The Pump Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and expanded workplace protections for nursing mothers, including reasonable back break time and a private space other than a bathroom to express milk. The Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act, which went into effect on June 27, 2023,

Pump Act And PWFA Basics

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requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, unless doing so would create undue hardship. Since then, the legal landscape has continued to develop. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC, interpretive guidance to the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act, confirms that the law requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to affected

EEOC Guidance Expands The Conversation

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by or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions absent on due hardship. The guidance also recognizes that pregnancy-related needs can include more than the obvious accommodations such as lactation, pumping, miscarriage, stillbirth, preclampsia, gestational diabetes, fertility treatment, and postpartum recovery can all be part of the conversation under the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act. The EEOC's guidance is crucial because it makes clear the pregnancy accommodations should not be treated as extraordinary benefits. In many cases, they are they are ordinary, practical adjustments that allow someone to continue to keep doing their job. The EOC identifies several simple modifications that should be reasonable and should not be and should not impose an undue hardship on the employer or create a significant difficulty or expense for the employer. When requested by a pregnant employee, for example, the employer may need to allow an employee to keep water nearby and drink as needed, or take additional restroom breaks, or sit and stand as needed and take breaks to eat or drink. A chair, a water bottle, a break, a temporary schedule adjustment, or a private place to pump may seem simple, but they can be the difference between a mother staying employed and being forced out. The need for these protections is not theoretical. The motherhood penalty continues to shape how women are evaluated, paid, promoted, and retained. Recent workplace commentary has captured the problem well. Mothers are often misread. A mother who sets clearer boundaries may be viewed

The Motherhood Penalty At Work

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as less committed. A mother who is less willing to answer every non-urgent message immediately may be viewed as less ambitious, less available, or less dedicated. A mother who questions unnecessary meetings or performance performative urgency may be treated as though her priorities have changed, when in reality her efficiency, judgment, and leadership may have sharpened. One recent Fast Company article noted that the motherhood penalty appears in both earnings and evaluations, citing research in which mothers were rated as less competent, less committed than otherwise equivalent non-mothers and were recommended for lower starting salaries. The Fast Company article also highlighted research finding that in the United States, mothers' earnings fall substantially in the years after our first child while fathers' earnings barely move. Another recent Fast Company article focused on the cost of the employer to employers when inflexible systems push mothers out. It describes a working mother who proposed a job share arrangement while pregnant and raising a toddler. The proposal was rejected as too logistically complicated and she left. Others followed, the employer later adjusted expectations, but only after losing talented employees with institutional knowledge. That story is familiar to many working mothers. What employers describe as a choice to leave is often not a real choice at all. It is the predictable result of systems that make staying unreasonably difficult. One sentence in the Fast Company article struck a chord. Moms know this feeling all too well. For decades, employers have talked about the motherhood penalty as though motherhood is a workplace liability. But that framing misses something critical. Motherhood often develops the very skills employers say they value. Working mothers regularly practice prioritization, crisis management, emotional intelligence, negotiation, long-term planning, adaptability, and decisive communication. They learn how to manage competing demands with limited time and limited room for error. They become skilled at identifying what truly matters and what does not. This is not a lack of ambition or commitment, it is a different kind of leadership and often a more effective one. Employers who understand this will have an advantage. Employers who do not will continue to lose experienced, capable employees, and then wonder why retention is so difficult. The Pump Act and the Pregnancy Worker Fairness Act create enforceable rights, but a workplace that supports mothers must go further than technical compliance. The law matters because it gives employees a way to insist on baseline, dignity, and fairness. But the best employers, the

Support Beats Bare Minimum Compliance

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best employers should not need a lawsuit, either an EOC charge or a Department of Labor complaint to understand that a mother should not have to choose between the paycheck, her health, and her child. If you are pregnant, postpartum, recovering from childbirth, undergoing fertility treatment, nursing, pumping, or managing a related medical condition, you may have the rights under the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act and the Pump Act. Title VII as well, under the federal law, the Pregnancy

How To Request Accommodations

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Discrimination Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Feminine Medical Leave Act, state law, local law, and some combination of those protections. If you need an accommodation, request it in writing. You'd not need to use legal jargon, but you should clearly explain you need what you need and how it relates to pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, postpartum recovery, or any related medical condition. Examples may include additional restroom breaks, breaks to eat or drink, a stool or seating, temporary relief from lifting schedule adjustments, leave for medical appointments, time to recover from childbirth, or time and space to pump. If you are pumping at work, remember the Pump Act generally protects reasonable break time in private place in a private place other than a bathroom or a closet, which I've seen in the past. For one year after the child's birth, if you are not completely relieved from working during a pumping break, the time may be needed the time may need to be treated as hours work for minimum wage and overtime purposes. Most importantly, do not assume that being told we cannot do that is the end of the conversation. Under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, employer the employer should engage in the interactive process. Under the Pump Act, most employers must provide legally compliant pumping protections subject to limited exceptions. Further, under the anti-retaliation laws, an employer generally cannot punish you for asserting your rights. Employees should pay attention to their current or future employers' policies as they can make all the difference. The Pump Act and the Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act are two wins for pregnant and working moms. But the real measure of progress will be whether mothers can stay, grow, lead, and thrive at work after pregnancy and childbirth. When workplaces push out mothers, they lose talent, institutional knowledge, leadership, and loyalty. When they support mothers, they do not merely avoid liability, they strengthen the entire workforce. And I'm going to say, just on my own behalf, what I've just talked about is so critical to working mothers and to myself as an employer. And I believe in what I just talked about, because it's true. Especially the loyalty factor that is created when you support working mothers at work. It can go a long way. Thank you for letting me be a service and have a great week.