Pregnancy Discrimination Statistics for California, 2026

Pregnancy discrimination has two counts now. The traditional one, discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions, sits inside the sex charges. The newer one, failure to accommodate under the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect June 27, 2023, has its own line. California has required pregnancy accommodation and up to four months of pregnancy disability leave for decades, so its complaint tables separate pregnancy, accommodation requests and leave.

California complaints, pregnancy, accommodation and leave

Pregnancy right to sue complaints rose 45 percent from 2022 to 2024 and accommodation request retaliation complaints rose 109 percent. Pregnancy disability leave was added as a separate basis late in 2022, so the 2022 figures on those lines are partial.

A note on how to read the CRD figures. The Civil Rights Department publishes its numbers by calendar year, and it counts a complaint under every basis it lists, so the basis rows add up to more than the number of complaints. Most California workers who go to court first ask CRD for an immediate right to sue notice rather than an investigation, so the right to sue table is the closer measure of how many people are actually pursuing a claim.

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act charges

Nationally the EEOC resolved 2,807 PWFA charges in fiscal 2025 with 733 merit resolutions, 26.1 percent, and obtained 18.35 million dollars for charging parties. The merit rate is higher than for most other bases, which is common for a new accommodation statute: the duty is clear and the refusals are documented.

The national pregnancy series

Pregnancy charges under Title VII jumped 49 percent in fiscal 2025 after years of decline, most likely because the new accommodation law brought people into the process who then alleged both.

What these numbers mean if it happened to you

• California employers with five or more employees must provide up to four months of pregnancy disability leave and must reasonably accommodate pregnancy, and the job must be held.
• Firing, demoting, cutting hours or refusing to reinstate after leave is pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation for asking for an accommodation is its own basis in the state tables.
• The federal PWFA adds a duty to accommodate known limitations at employers with fifteen or more employees, and the EEOC has been resolving those charges at a high merit rate.
• Lactation accommodation, including a private space and break time, is required in California.

Sources

The figures on this page were taken from the following publications, as released by the agencies. Percentages, changes, sums and rates per 100,000 workers are our own arithmetic from those figures.

• California Civil Rights Department, 2024 Annual Report (complaint tables and county appendix), calcivilrights.ca.gov
• California Civil Rights Department, 2023 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
• California Civil Rights Department, 2022 Annual Report, calcivilrights.ca.gov
• EEOC, Table E1b, charge receipts by state and basis, FY 2009 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E4d, pregnancy based charge receipts and resolutions, FY 2010 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov
• EEOC, Table E8a, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act charge receipts and resolutions, FY 2024 to FY 2025, www.eeoc.gov

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