With well over half of first-time mothers staying on the job during their pregnancies, a recent Supreme Court ruling calling for a full hearing on a pregnancy discrimination cases comes at a good time, a new research report suggests.
It was relatively rare in the 1960s for women to work after they became pregnant, federal data show.
But since the 1970s, that is no longer the case: Now 66 percent of pregnant women continue to work, either full-time or part-time, a Pew Research Center report said, citing Census Bureau figures on employment and maternity leave for first-time mothers.
It is also common for women to work through most or all of their pregnancies: In 2006 to 2008, 82 percent of first-time mothers stayed on the job until the eighth or ninth month of their pregnancies, the Pew report said.
All of this laboring-until-labor-day activity makes the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 increasingly relevant — and a March 25 Supreme Court ruling took an important step in making sure the issue is reopened.
In its 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court vacated a ruling against Peggy Young, a part-time driver for United Parcel Service, and sent her case back to the lower court to fully hear her dispute with UPS.
Ms. Young had tried to argue that she was illegally disfavored when UPS did not permit her to avoid “heavy lifting” during her 2006 pregnancy, and instead required her to go on an extended, unpaid leave of absence that cost her medical coverage.
But the federal court and 4th Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t think she had proved that she had been discriminated against and dismissed her case.
The Supreme Court disagreed and sent Ms. Young’s case back for reconsideration — with a framework for how employees and employers should tackle the pregnancy discrimination issue.
Thus, the Young v. UPS case “may have very wide-reaching implications,” said Gretchen Livingston, co-author of a Pew report on pregnancy and work, released March 31.
Not only are more women working, but in 2013, about 3.9 million women gave birth, including 1.5 million who became moms for the first time, Ms. Livingston noted.
Maternity-leave coverage is another critical issue for working women.
About a quarter of women leave their jobs after their first child’s birth — down from almost 40 percent who quit to stay home with the children in the early 1980s, the Pew report said.
But a large majority of working mothers now return to their jobs: Among those who had their first birth between 2005 and 2007, 73 percent went back to work by six months after the birth.
Staying financially solvent while on maternity leave requires planning and a savings account, especially if the mother is going to take unpaid leave.
“Unlike its developed-world counterparts, the U.S. does not mandate any paid leave,” the Pew report said. Instead, the U.S. requires 12 weeks of unpaid-but-protected leave for eligible employees with medical situations, including childbirth.
As a result, most women use paid leave, such as vacation and sick days, plus a period of unpaid leave to get them through the birth and their first months with a newborn, census data show.
Only around 10 percent of working women used short-term disability insurance to cover their births, federal data show.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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