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In a huge win for working parents, the 117th Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act on December 29th, 2022. The PWFA will go into effect on June 27th, 2023, while all but one provision of the PUMP Act went into effect with the stroke of President Biden’s pen. These bills represent more than a decade of persistence by state and national organizations to protect working parents on the job.
The Pregnant Worker Fairness Act and the PUMP Act provide new rights to workplace accommodations under federal law that will support pregnant and breastfeeding workers across the country to safeguard their own health and that of their pregnancies and infants. These laws prohibit employers from discriminating against working parents when they need accommodations related to breastfeeding, pregnancy, and childbirth recovery.
Click here to learn more about these new federal laws.
We and many state coalition partners labored alongside national groups to win extended protections for pregnant and breastfeeding parents working to support their families. We are now excitedly making plans for how we will support the rollout of both bills by spreading the word and educating working North Carolinians about their new rights. We are thankful for our coalition partners’ tenacity and advocacy in the decade-long effort to pass these monumental policies to protect working parents. Nobody should have to choose between their health or their job.
Ana Pardo is the co-director of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Workers’ Rights Project. Ivy Nicole-Jonét is the project’s Digital Communications Coordinator.
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