Washington state is expanding pregnancy-related accommodations by requiring all employers, regardless of size, to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant and postpartum employees by January 1, 2027.
Employers must make reasonable accommodation for an employee’s pregnancy — which includes the employee’s pregnancy and pregnancy-related health conditions, including the need to express breast milk — unless the employer can demonstrate that doing so would impose an undue hardship.
“Reasonable accommodation” in this context means:
- Providing more frequent, longer, or flexible restroom breaks;
- Modifying a no food or drink policy;
- Job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position, or acquiring or modifying equipment, devices, or an employee’s work station;
- Providing seating or allowing the employee to sit more frequently if the employee’s job requires the employee to stand;
- Providing for a temporary transfer to a less strenuous or less hazardous position;
- Providing assistance with manual labor and limits on lifting;
- Scheduling flexibility for prenatal and postpartum visits;
- Providing reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for two years after the child’s birth each time the employee has a need to express milk and providing a private location, other than a bathroom, if such a location exists at the place of business or worksite, which may be used by the employee to express breast milk. If the business location does not have a space for the employee to express milk, the employer must work with the employee to identify a convenient location and work schedule to accommodate their needs; and
- Any further pregnancy accommodation an employee may request, and to which an employer must give reasonable consideration in consultation with information provided on pregnancy accommodation by the department or the attending health care provider of the employee.
Any break time and any time traveling to a location to be used by the employee to express breast milk must be paid at the employee’s regular compensation rate. An employee must not be required to use paid leave during break or travel time to express milk during work, and any break time to express milk is in addition to meal and rest periods.