At Greenberg Gross LLP, our New Jersey pregnancy discrimination lawyers represent employees who have been denied accommodations, lost workplace opportunities, faced retaliation, or otherwise been treated unlawfully because of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions. Our team investigates what changed after an employer learned about a pregnancy, how workplace needs were handled, and whether subsequent employment decisions were lawful.
Pregnancy discrimination can appear through assumptions about an employee's capabilities, availability, or commitment, as well as overt discriminatory treatment. If you believe pregnancy has affected how your employer treats you, call (973) 833-1933 for a free, confidential consultation.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- What Is Pregnancy Discrimination in New Jersey?
- Why Choose Greenberg Gross for a New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Case?
- What Laws Protect Pregnant Employees in New Jersey?
- What Are Examples of Pregnancy Discrimination at Work?
- What Pregnancy Accommodations Must New Jersey Employers Provide?
- What Does the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Require?
- What Changed After Your Employer Learned You Were Pregnant?
- Can Your Employer Put You on Leave Instead of Accommodating You?
- Can Your Employer Fire You While You Are Pregnant?
- Can Pregnancy Affect Promotions and Career Opportunities?
- What Leave and Benefits May Be Available During and After Pregnancy?
- What Rights Do You Have When You Return to Work?
- Can Your Employer Retaliate Against You for Requesting an Accommodation?
- What Evidence Can Help Establish Pregnancy Discrimination?
- How Can Our New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyers Help?
- How Do You File a Pregnancy Discrimination Claim in New Jersey?
- What Remedies May Be Available for Pregnancy Discrimination?
- Frequently Asked Questions About New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination
- Talk to a New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer at Greenberg Gross to Learn More
What Is Pregnancy Discrimination in New Jersey?
Pregnancy discrimination occurs when an employer treats an applicant or employee unlawfully because of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or a related medical condition. It can affect hiring, assignments, compensation, promotions, benefits, discipline, termination, and other terms of employment.
Discrimination can also involve an employer's failure to meet legal obligations when pregnancy affects an employee's ability to perform her job. Importantly, an employee does not have to be fired to experience pregnancy discrimination.
Why Choose Greenberg Gross for a New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Case?
Pregnancy discrimination cases can involve overlapping accommodation, leave, retaliation, and anti-discrimination laws. Establishing what occurred may require careful comparison of employment records from before and after pregnancy became known.
Greenberg Gross is a trial firm built for high-stakes cases. Our attorneys prepare every case as though it will go to trial, developing the evidence necessary to test an employer's explanation and pursue appropriate relief.
Greenberg Gross attorneys have earned recognition from Super Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell's AV Preeminent rating, the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and the Daily Journal, including Top 100, Top Plaintiff, and Top Labor & Employment recognition.
What Laws Protect Pregnant Employees in New Jersey?
The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy and breastfeeding and provides workplace accommodation protections related to pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, and breastfeeding.
Federal Title VII, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, prohibits discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.
The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) separately requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship. The PWFA generally covers employers with at least 15 employees.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and New Jersey leave and benefits laws provide additional protections to employees who meet their respective requirements.
For a deeper explanation, we created a blog titled “Pregnancy Discrimination Rights Under New Jersey Law.” Otherwise, reach out to our team for a free consultation to learn about your specific rights.
Greenberg Gross LLP is ready to stand by your side
What Are Examples of Pregnancy Discrimination at Work?
Potential examples include an employer:
- Refusing to hire or promote someone because she is pregnant
- Denying a reasonable pregnancy-related accommodation
- Removing assignments based on assumptions about pregnancy
- Penalizing qualifying pregnancy-related restrictions or absences
- Pressuring an employee to begin leave unnecessarily
- Terminating an employee because of pregnancy or an accommodation request
- Retaliating after an employee asserts pregnancy-related rights
Not every difficult workplace experience during pregnancy violates the law. Pregnancy discrimination occurs when pregnancy or the exercise of protected rights unlawfully influences an employer's actions.
What Pregnancy Accommodations Must New Jersey Employers Provide?
Under NJLAD, employers must provide reasonable accommodations for qualifying pregnancy-related workplace needs unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. Depending on the circumstances, accommodations can include:
- Bathroom, water, or rest breaks
- Assistance with manual labor
- Modified work schedules
- Job restructuring
- Temporary transfers to less strenuous or hazardous work
- Workstation changes
- Remote work
- Changes to certain job duties
The appropriate accommodation depends on the employee's needs and job. An employer should not simply assume that a pregnant employee cannot continue working when a reasonable modification could address the limitation.
What Does the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Require?
The federal PWFA protects qualified employees and applicants with known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. A pregnancy-related limitation does not have to qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act for the PWFA to apply.
Potential accommodations can include schedule changes, additional breaks, workstation modifications, lifting assistance, telework, time for medical appointments, temporary suspension of certain job functions in qualifying circumstances, or leave.
Importantly, a covered employer cannot require a qualified employee to take paid or unpaid leave when another reasonable accommodation would allow the employee to keep working.
What Changed After Your Employer Learned You Were Pregnant?
One useful way to investigate pregnancy discrimination is to compare the employee's treatment before and after the employer learned about the pregnancy or pregnancy-related limitation.
Our attorneys may examine whether:
- Performance reviews suddenly changed
- Important assignments or opportunities disappeared
- Supervisors began questioning attendance or commitment
- An accommodation request triggered increased scrutiny
- Discipline followed a history of satisfactory performance
- The employer's attitude changed after learning about the anticipated leave
Timing alone does not prove discrimination. But a timeline can reveal changes that require explanation. For example, if an employee was considered a strong performer until announcing a pregnancy and suddenly became “unreliable” without a corresponding decline in performance, we can examine the records and communications behind that shift.
The important question is not simply what changed, but why it changed.
Can Your Employer Put You on Leave Instead of Accommodating You?
Leave is one form of reasonable accommodation, but under the PWFA, a covered employer cannot require a qualified employee to take leave when another reasonable accommodation would allow the employee to continue working.
For example, a lifting restriction should not automatically result in leave if an effective reasonable accommodation is available. New Jersey specifically recognizes measures such as assistance with manual labor and temporary transfer among potential pregnancy accommodations.
Can Your Employer Fire You While You Are Pregnant?
Pregnancy does not provide absolute protection from legitimate employment actions. An employer can still discipline or terminate an employee for a lawful reason unrelated to pregnancy. However, an employer cannot lawfully fire someone because of pregnancy, childbirth, a protected pregnancy-related condition, or the exercise of protected rights.
When the reason for termination is disputed, our attorneys can examine when the decision was made, how the employee performed before pregnancy became known, how accommodation or leave requests were handled, and whether contemporaneous records support the employer's explanation.
Can Pregnancy Affect Promotions and Career Opportunities?
Employers should not make career decisions based on assumptions about what a pregnant employee or new mother will want. A manager might believe that removing a demanding account, limiting travel, or passing an employee over for promotion is considerate.
Taking opportunities away because of assumptions that pregnancy or motherhood makes an employee less ambitious, available, or committed can constitute unlawful discrimination.
These stereotypes can continue after childbirth. An employee may return, ready to resume her career, only to discover that her responsibilities and opportunities for advancement have permanently shifted to colleagues.
Pregnancy discrimination is closely related to broader gender-based workplace claims. Our New Jersey gender discrimination lawyers can explain how these protections apply to gender-based employment decisions.
We can help determine the details of your case
What Leave and Benefits May Be Available During and After Pregnancy?
Several laws and benefit programs protect employees during and after pregnancy, but job protection and wage replacement are not the same. The federal FMLA provides eligible employees with job-protected leave for pregnancy-related incapacity, prenatal care, recovery from childbirth, and bonding.
New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) provides qualifying benefits provides benefits to eligible employees who cannot work because of pregnancy or recovery from childbirth. Family Leave Insurance (FLI) can provide benefits for parents who are bonding with a new child.
The New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) provides job-protected bonding leave to eligible employees but does not cover an employee's own pregnancy-related disability..New Jersey also expanded certain NJFLA and TDI/FLI job protections effective July 17, 2026.
Because these protections overlap in different ways, eligibility under one program does not determine all of an employee's rights.
What Rights Do You Have When You Return to Work?
Employees who qualify for reinstatement under the legally protected leave are entitled to the reinstatement rights that the law provides. Pregnancy-related accommodation rights can also continue after childbirth when recovery, lactation, or another related medical condition affects work.
NJLAD also provides breastfeeding employees with protections involving reasonable break time and an appropriate private location for expressing breast milk, subject to applicable requirements. An employer's pregnancy-related obligations do not necessarily end when an employee returns from leave.
Can Your Employer Retaliate Against You for Requesting an Accommodation?
New Jersey and federal law prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for exercising protected pregnancy-related rights.
An employee should not be punished for requesting or using a reasonable accommodation, reporting pregnancy discrimination, or engaging in other protected activity. Depending on the circumstances, retaliation can include discipline, demotion, termination, or lost workplace opportunities.
What Evidence Can Help Establish Pregnancy Discrimination?
Pregnancy discrimination cases often require attorneys to reconstruct a sequence rather than find one decisive document. Relevant evidence can include accommodation and leave requests, medical certifications, emails, performance evaluations, attendance records, assignment histories, disciplinary documents, and communications involving supervisors or Human Resources.
Records created before the employer knew about the pregnancy can provide an especially useful baseline for evaluating later claims about performance, reliability, or commitment.
Employees should preserve only materials they are lawfully entitled to possess and should not improperly access restricted, confidential, or privileged information. We can help gather other documents through the litigation process as needed.
How Can Our New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyers Help?
Our attorneys can identify the applicable state and federal protections and investigate how the employer handled the employee's pregnancy, accommodations, leave, and employment decisions.
We can build a chronology, review policies and employment records, identify useful comparisons, preserve evidence, challenge unsupported explanations, handle administrative proceedings, and pursue negotiations.
When litigation becomes necessary, our lawyers can use discovery to obtain relevant internal records and testimony and prepare the case for trial. When needed, we will be prepared to advocate for your rights before a judge or jury.
How Do You File a Pregnancy Discrimination Claim in New Jersey?
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) enforces NJLAD. A discrimination complaint generally must be filed with DCR within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory act.
Depending on the circumstances, an employee may instead pursue an NJLAD claim in New Jersey Superior Court, where the applicable limitations period is generally two years.
Federal pregnancy discrimination and PWFA claims generally involve filing a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before filing a lawsuit. Qualifying New Jersey EEOC charges generally have a 300-day filing period.
Other claims can have different procedures and deadlines. Employees should not assume an internal HR complaint pauses an external filing period. Our team can explain all deadlines that may apply to your situation during our initial consultation.
What Remedies May Be Available for Pregnancy Discrimination?
Depending on the claims and harm involved, potential remedies can include lost wages and benefits, reinstatement or other equitable relief, compensation for qualifying emotional harm, punitive damages when legally available, and attorneys' fees and costs where authorized by law.
Accommodation, leave, retaliation, and discrimination claims provide different remedies, so the legal basis of the case affects the relief an employee can pursue.
Frequently Asked Questions About New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination
Do I have to be disabled to receive a pregnancy accommodation?
No. Under the PWFA, a pregnancy-related limitation does not have to satisfy the ADA definition of disability. New Jersey law also provides specific protections for pregnancy accommodations.
Can an employer refuse to hire me because I am pregnant?
An employer cannot lawfully refuse to hire an otherwise qualified applicant because of pregnancy or make hiring decisions based on assumptions about future leave or parenthood.
Do I need to say “reasonable accommodation” when asking for help?
No. Under the PWFA, an employee or representative can communicate a pregnancy-related limitation and the need for a workplace change without using the specific term “reasonable accommodation.”
Can pregnancy discrimination happen after I give birth?
Yes. Pregnancy discrimination protections extend to childbirth and related medical conditions, and New Jersey law also protects breastfeeding employees. Discrimination after childbirth can involve assumptions about an employee's availability, ambition, or commitment after becoming a mother.
What if my employer says my pregnancy accommodation is too difficult?
Employers do not have to provide an accommodation that would impose an undue hardship under the applicable law. But simply calling a request inconvenient does not resolve the issue; the accommodation and workplace circumstances must be evaluated under the governing legal standard.
Talk to a New Jersey Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer at Greenberg Gross to Learn More
Pregnancy should not cost an employee workplace opportunities or result in punishment for requesting protections provided by law. When treatment changes after pregnancy becomes known, the timeline and the employer's own records can help establish why.
The New Jersey pregnancy discrimination lawyers at Greenberg Gross LLP investigate accommodation, leave, retaliation, and employment decisions and pursue appropriate remedies when the evidence supports a claim.
Call Greenberg Gross LLP at (973) 833-1933 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation. Our team is available 24/7.