Honors Theses

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Public Policy Leadership

First Advisor

Melissa Bass

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Pregnancy accommodations refer to changes in the workplace or the way a job is typically done that allows an equal employment opportunity to a pregnant individual. Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C. have enacted pregnancy accommodation laws or requirements. Through documentary analysis of the state laws and surrounding literature, I compare the state laws to one another and the issue of pregnancy accommodations is discussed. The United States needs a national or uniform pregnancy accommodation law to equally protect pregnant women from job loss, wage loss, hazards to their pregnancy, and other forms of discrimination. In addition, companies and employers benefit from uniform pregnancy accommodation laws due to fewer lawsuits, including expensive legal expenses and time, and ease of creating policies and procedures. The current state and federal laws’ insufficiencies are due to small scope of coverage. The problems are reinforced through increasing case numbers, increasing number of state laws, and literature on women’s experiences. I compare the state laws on pregnancy accommodation in order to give a policy recommendation on the feasible ways to address the problem of failure in protecting pregnant women in the workplace due to lack of accommodation laws. I recommend the adoption by all states of the model law proposed to ensure equal access for pregnancy accommodation.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.