Essential Functions Under the PWFA

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. Its treatment of essential job functions is where it departs most sharply from the ADA — and where employers applying ADA reasoning get it wrong.

The Key Difference From the ADA

Under the ADA, an individual must be able to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. An accommodation that eliminates an essential function is generally not required.

The PWFA takes a different approach. It contemplates that an employee may be temporarily unable to perform an essential function and still be entitled to accommodation — including suspension of that function — where the inability is temporary, the function could be performed in the near future, and the inability can be reasonably accommodated.

That is a genuine expansion, and it is the provision employers most often miss because it contradicts the ADA instinct.

What "Known Limitation" Means

A known limitation is a physical or mental condition related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions that the employee has communicated to the employer. The threshold is deliberately low — the condition need not be a disability, and it need not be severe.

Communication can be informal. An employee telling a supervisor she cannot lift heavy boxes because of her pregnancy has communicated a known limitation.

The Interactive Process

As under the ADA, the PWFA contemplates an interactive process between employer and employee. The employer should respond promptly, discuss options, and avoid unnecessary delay — delay itself is a recognized failure, and pregnancy accommodation is inherently time-limited, which makes delay more consequential than in other contexts.

Limits on Requesting Documentation

Employers should be cautious about demanding medical documentation reflexively. The framework contemplates that documentation is not always necessary or appropriate, particularly where the limitation and the accommodation needed are obvious or where the accommodation is simple.

Requiring a medical certificate before allowing an employee to carry a water bottle or sit rather than stand is the kind of response that generates complaints.

Common Accommodations

• Additional or longer breaks, including for rest, food or the bathroom.
• Seating where the role is normally performed standing.
• Modified schedules or remote work where feasible.
• Temporary relief from lifting or other physical requirements.
• Temporary reassignment or light duty.
• Leave, where no other accommodation is effective — though leave should not be imposed where another accommodation would allow the employee to keep working.

That last point matters: forcing an employee onto leave when a workable accommodation exists is itself a potential violation.

Undue Hardship Still Applies

Employers are not required to provide an accommodation that imposes undue hardship — significant difficulty or expense assessed against the employer's resources and operations. It remains a fact-specific determination requiring analysis and evidence, not an assertion.

How It Interacts With Other Laws

The PWFA does not displace the ADA, the FMLA, Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, or state laws that provide greater protection. A single situation can engage several at once, and the employee is entitled to the most protective treatment available.

See light-duty assignments under FMLA, ADA and workers' compensation for how overlapping obligations are handled in practice.

What Employers Should Do

1. Train supervisors to recognize and escalate limitations rather than assess them.
2. Respond promptly — the accommodation window is finite by nature.
3. Consider temporary suspension of essential functions rather than dismissing it on ADA reasoning.
4. Avoid reflexive documentation demands for straightforward accommodations.
5. Document the process, options considered and reasoning.
6. Never impose leave where a workable accommodation exists.

Training Supervisors on the Difference

Supervisors trained on the ADA will apply ADA reasoning to a PWFA situation, because that is what they know. The specific instruction they need is that temporary suspension of an essential function is contemplated under the PWFA in a way it generally is not under the ADA.

The practical rule to give them is simple: escalate rather than assess. A supervisor who hears that an employee cannot perform part of their role because of pregnancy should pass it to HR the same day rather than deciding whether accommodation is required.

Duration and Review

Because pregnancy-related limitations change over time, accommodations under the PWFA frequently need adjustment rather than being set once. A restriction appropriate at one stage may be unnecessary later, or insufficient.

Build a review point into the accommodation rather than waiting for the employee to raise it. Employees are frequently reluctant to ask twice, and an accommodation that has stopped working is not an accommodation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Must the condition be a disability?

No. The PWFA threshold is lower than the ADA's.

Can we require a doctor's note?

Only where reasonable in the circumstances; many accommodations do not warrant it.

How long must an essential function be suspended?

The framework contemplates temporary suspension where the function can be performed again in the near future.

Related Reading and Training

See examples of reasonable accommodations and documenting the accommodation process. For integrated training, see the FMLA, ADA, COBRA and workers' compensation certification program.