Walmart pregnancy accommodation and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

Pregnant, on your feet all shift, and something has to change: a lifting limit, a stool, water at your station, time for appointments. Someone at the store may have told you Walmart only does light duty for people hurt on the job. That was the answer under an older law, and the law changed in 2023.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is recent, specific, and written for this situation.

What does the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act require?

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act went into effect on June 27, 2023. It covers private and public employers with 15 or more employees, which includes Walmart. The EEOC's regulation under it went into effect on June 18, 2024.

The law works from a "known limitation." That means you, or someone speaking for you, have told Walmart about a physical or mental condition related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Telling your manager is one way that happens; nothing in the definition requires a form.

Once the limitation is known, the PWFA requires the employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee, unless doing so would be an undue hardship. The law defines undue hardship as significant difficulty or expense. Two further limits matter most here.

Walmart may not require you to take leave if another reasonable accommodation would let you keep working. And it may not require you to accept an accommodation other than one arrived at through the interactive process, the back-and-forth in which you and the employer work out what addresses the limitation.

Certicare is a telehealth service where a state-licensed provider completes and signs leave and accommodation paperwork after an evaluation. This page is about the rules underneath that paperwork.

What changed at Walmart?

The public record, in order.

In 2014, Walmart revised its policy so that pregnancy-related temporary disabilities fell under its disability accommodation policy. A public backgrounder from A Better Balance documents it.

In June 2018, Walmart announced that pregnant associates could ask for "job adjustments, reasonable accommodations, and now, Temporary Alternative Duty." TAD was described as a program that, in most states, Walmart had previously reserved for workers with on-the-job injuries. The 2018 announcement named light duty or a temporary transfer to a less physically demanding position, and breaks to drink water, as examples.

In August 2022, the Seventh Circuit decided EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East. The court held that an earlier policy at a Wisconsin distribution center, light duty for work-injury restrictions but not for off-the-job injuries or pregnancy, did not violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, because Walmart acted pursuant to a neutral workers' compensation program. That ruling, as HR Dive reported it was under the old law, about a policy that predates the 2018 change.

Since June 27, 2023, the PWFA has set the standard for every employer with 15 or more employees, Walmart included. Light duty is on the EEOC's own list of possible accommodations. So a flat "light duty is only for work injuries" is the pre-2023 answer. The PWFA doesn't make light duty automatic; it makes it one of the accommodations an employer has to consider, unless it would be an undue hardship. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act still applies alongside it.

What Walmart does with any individual request is still Walmart's decision. The PWFA changes what it has to consider before answering, and what it may not do in the answer.

Certicare is not affiliated with Walmart. Walmart makes the final decision on leave and accommodation requests. This page is general information about the leave process, not legal advice.

What can you ask for?

The EEOC's PWFA page carries a list of example accommodations, and Walmart's own 2018 announcement named some of the same ones. What you ask for should match your limitation; the interactive process is where the specifics get worked out.

More breaks, and water where you work

Additional breaks and flexible food and drink policies are both on the EEOC's list. Walmart's 2018 announcement named "breaks to drink water" as one of its examples. Ask for the specific thing: a water bottle at your position, or a bathroom break that doesn't wait on coverage.

Sitting, standing, or a stool

The EEOC lists equipment changes, and a stool at a register or a workstation is the everyday version. Its documentation guidance treats standing and sitting as basic current-pregnancy needs, which matters in the next section.

A lifting limit or a temporary reassignment

Light duty, temporary reassignment, and suspension of a job function are all on the EEOC's list. Walmart's 2018 announcement named light duty or a temporary transfer to a less physically demanding position. The general rules for restrictions and light duty at Walmart are on their own page; this one stays with what the PWFA adds.

Schedule changes and time for appointments

Schedule adjustments, telework where the job allows it, and leave for medical appointments are on the list. For an hourly store job, the realistic asks are a shift change, a shorter shift, and time off for prenatal appointments requested in advance.

Leave to recover from childbirth

Leave to recover from childbirth is on the EEOC's list as an accommodation in its own right, separate from FMLA. How long it runs is a medical question your provider answers, not a number this page can give you.

Do you need a doctor's note?

Not always, and the EEOC says so. It isn't reasonable for an employer to demand documentation when the limitation is obvious, when the employer already knows about it, or when the need is a basic current-pregnancy one like bathroom breaks, food, water, or standing and sitting. A visibly pregnant cashier asking for a stool is the kind of request that guidance is written for.

Documentation becomes reasonable when the limitation isn't obvious or already known, or when the request is larger: a lifting limit, a reassignment, leave. Even then, the EEOC's PWFA materials say the documentation has to be reasonable, and its ADA accommodation guidance says an employer may not ask for documentation unrelated to whether there is a disability and whether the accommodation is necessary. Your whole chart is not the question.

When a form is reasonable, it has three jobs. It names the limitation in plain terms. It names the change being requested, and it says how long the change is expected to last, which for pregnancy usually has a natural end date.

If you see an OB or a midwife, ask that office first. If the office doesn't complete employer forms, or can't before the date on the letter you were sent, Certicare's workplace accommodation paperwork is completed and signed by a state-licensed provider after an evaluation. The completed form comes back to you, and you submit it.

How does leave fit in?

Under the PWFA, leave has one specific limit: Walmart can't require it when another reasonable accommodation would let you keep working. You can still ask for it.

FMLA is a separate track with its own eligibility. Under 29 CFR 825.110, you need 12 months with Walmart, 1,250 hours worked in the prior 12 months, and a worksite with 50 or more employees within 75 miles. The 1,250 hours works out to a little over 24 hours actually worked per week; PTO and leave time generally don't count toward it.

If you meet all three tests, FMLA leave covers the birth of a child and time to bond with the newborn, as the DOL's FMLA fact sheet sets out. 29 CFR 825.120 adds that the expectant mother is entitled to FMLA leave for incapacity due to pregnancy and for prenatal care, and that bonding leave has to be taken within the 12 months after the birth. If you don't meet them yet, FMLA isn't attached, and that is not the end of the list.

Walmart's own leave types are on its public leave-of-absence overview for hourly associates. One of them, Personal Leave, is listed as available from your date of hire and covers medical conditions among other reasons. It's the one to read about first if you're short of FMLA eligibility.

What people search as "Walmart maternity leave" is usually a combination of those tracks. How long each runs, and whether any of it is paid, isn't on this page. It's on the overview, on the paid-time screens on one.walmart.com, and above all in the letter Sedgwick sends once a leave is requested.

Leave is requested through Sedgwick, on mySedgwick. Sedgwick collects the paperwork and manages the case; Walmart makes the decision. If you're not sure which track applies, the Walmart leave options finder sorts it, and leave at Walmart without FMLA covers the day-one options in detail.

What if you're told no?

First, get the no in writing, with the reason. A verbal "we don't do that" from a manager isn't the end of the interactive process. It may be the start of it.

Second, offer an alternative. The interactive process runs both ways: under the EEOC's ADA guidance the employer need not provide your preferred accommodation as long as it provides an effective one, and under the PWFA it can't require you to accept one that wasn't arrived at through that process. If a stool is refused, a shorter stretch between breaks might be the accommodation that works. Say so, in writing.

Third, match your answer to the reason. If the reason is "we need documentation," that's a request you can meet, and the section above covers what the form should say. If the reason is undue hardship, the definition is significant difficulty or expense, so ask what the difficulty is.

Leave can't be the default answer. If the only offer on the table is "go out on leave," the PWFA's rule against forced leave when another accommodation would work is the sentence to quote back.

For the formal request route at Walmart, including who opens the case and what a written request should contain, see how to request an accommodation at Walmart. There's no length-of-service test for an accommodation request under the ADA; someone in her first month can ask.

The PWFA is enforced by the EEOC. A charge with the EEOC has a filing clock of its own, 180 or 300 calendar days depending on where you work, and that clock belongs to a discrimination claim, not to your accommodation request. Whether you have such a claim is a legal question this page doesn't answer.

If the no came back as a documentation problem, a form completed and signed by a state-licensed provider is the part Certicare handles. The decision on the request belongs to Walmart.