New Report Details Rise in Pregnancy Discrimination Claims
Feature Story by Jessica Agarwal - 11/10/2008
Pregnancy discrimination claims against employers increased 65 percent from 1992 to 2007, according to a new report released by the National Partnership for Women and Families. The report, along with a conference held on October 29, commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
The Act, passed on October 31, 1978, overturned several Supreme Court decisions that allowed discrimination against pregnant women, such as laws excluding pregnant women from health and disability insurance coverage. The court decisions held that instances of pregnancy discrimination did not violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amended Title VII to state that pregnancy discrimination constitutes unlawful sex discrimination. Employers cannot, the law says, discriminate based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. In addition, pregnant employees who can't perform their jobs due to a pregnancy-related medical condition must be treated the same as other employees who are unable to work due to temporary disability.
However, the report shows that since this law was enacted, pregnancy discrimination claims are increasing, with most of the increase from claims filed by women of color and women working in industries dominated by female workers. Between 1996 and 2005, pregnancy discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rose 25 percent among all women but 76 percent among women of color. Claims by women who work in industries dominated by women – service, retail trade, and the financial services, insurance, and real estate industries – made up more than half of complaints.
According to Jocelyn Frye, general counsel of the National Partnership for Women and Families, this data suggests that although these industries may provide more opportunities of work for women, employers in these industries are not necessarily more aware of what constitutes pregnancy and other forms of sex discrimination, or vigilant about preventing discrimination.
In addition, Frye notes, "The increase in complaints about pregnancy discrimination far outpaced the increase in women in the workforce during this time period. Because many women who face pregnancy discrimination are reluctant to file charges with the EEOC, the problem may be even more widespread than these figures suggest."
Speakers at the conference pointed out that pregnancy discrimination occurs during all phases of the pregnancy – as soon as the woman tells her employer that she is pregnant, when she starts showing, and when she returns to work after giving birth. The main issue women face, the speakers emphasized, is the stereotypes associated with pregnant woman – that they are incapable of performing their jobs well and that their commitment to their work will decline.
For low-wage working women, pregnancy discrimination sometimes occurs in the most egregious ways. Melvina Ford, executive director of the D.C. Employment Justice Center, which advocates for low-wage workers, gave an example of a woman working at a restaurant who was promised she could return to her job after she came back from maternity leave but was forced to work night shift hours and not her regular day shift schedule after she returned. She had to quit the job because it was impossible for her to find child care at night. Low-income women, Ford said, usually do not have the resources to wait for litigation cases to be resolved in court and often have to settle for less in mediation.
The latest battle over pregnancy discrimination is a case that the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on December 10, AT&T v. Hulteen. In this case, the Supreme Court will determine whether the system used by AT&T to calculate pension benefits should give women who took pregnancy leave before the PDA was passed in 1978 the same credit for time not at work as employees with other types of disabilities received.
