Pregnancy Discrimination

An employer may not discriminate against you based on your pregnancy, childbirth or other related medical conditions.  Under Iowa law, an employer must provide up to eight weeks of unpaid leave to care for yourself before your baby is born, and to care for yourself and your baby once your baby is born.  An employer may not treat you differently than other employees because you are pregnant.  If you have problems with your pregnancy that make you unable to work, an employer may not treat you any differently than it would treat any other temporarily disabled employee.

What are some examples of pregnancy discrimination?

• Your hours are cut because you ask for time off to attend routine prenatal doctor’s appointments
•  You are fired when you return from maternity leave because your employer says it needed someone to fill your job while you were gone and could not wait for your return
•  Your boss treats you differently after learning of your pregnancy, such as making you do all of the undesirable tasks
•  A prospective employer refusing to hire you because you tell them that you are pregnant, or they can tell you are pregnant

Some companies also have FMLA leave, which would entitle you to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

All information on our website is meant to be generally informative. To find out whether you may have a case, you should consult an employment or discrimination attorney of your choice.

You are protected against pregnancy discrimination. Contact us! We can help.