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Erika Strassburger
City Councilmember | Pittsburgh, PA

Pregnancy Fairness

Idea Category: Jobs and Entrepreneurship, Smart Government

Problem

Pregnant employees, employees seeking to become pregnant, and those recovering from childbirth are forced to choose between their reproductive decisions and their livelihoods. Workers are subjected to conditions that can harm their opportunity for a healthy pregnancy or have to work a schedule that does not allow them to attend necessary appointments. Their employers are not providing the flexibility or workplace modifications needed to ensure that these workers can sustain a healthy pregnancy and remain productive at work. Additionally, partners of pregnant employees are often unable to provide the physical and emotional support to their partner due to lack of scheduling flexibility at their own jobs.

Solution

I authored a bill to expand protections against employment discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, & related medical conditions & events. Under this legislation, which passed unanimously in City Council & was signed into law by Mayor William Peduto, pregnant employees, those seeking to become pregnant, those recovering from childbirth, & their partners are provided recourse to file a claim against their employer with the City of Pittsburgh’s Commission on Human Relations (CHR) if they feel they’ve been discriminated against. I partnered with the CHR to release a Guidance Document to help both employers & employees understand their responsibility under the law and empower employers to prevent discrimination from ever happening.