S. 1486 would require all public-sector employers and any private-sector employers with more than 15 workers to make reasonable accommodations for the known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of employees and job applicants. The bill would not require employers to make any accommodation that would impose an undue hardship on business operations. Under the bill, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) would be required to issue regulations to implement the bill within two years of enactment.
Using information from the EEOC, CBO expects that for the first three years after the regulations are issued, the volume of claims related to pregnancy discrimination that EEOC receives would increase by about 20 percent (roughly an additional 500 claims) each year. (The EEOC expects that after three years, the number of pregnancy discrimination claims would return to prior levels as employers adjust to the new regulations.) To meet that initial workload, CBO estimates that the commission would need eight additional employees, at a cost of about $5 million over the 2022-2026 period. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. For fiscal year 2021, the Congress appropriated $404 million for all of the EEOC’s operations.
