How long do I have to file a pregnancy discrimination claim?

Washington doubles its state window for pregnancy

Washington's general rule is six months to file with the Human Rights Commission. The statute then carves out an exception: a complaint alleging pregnancy discrimination under RCW 49.60.180 "must be filed within one year after the alleged unfair practice."

The commission says the same thing on its employment page, listing the six-month rule and noting the twelve-month extension for pregnancy-related claims.

The extra time comes with a procedural catch that trips people up in Washington. Sending in the online intake questionnaire is the start, not the finish. Commission staff draft a perfected charge from what you submit, you have to review and sign it, and the commission states that the whole sequence has to be completed inside the limitations period to protect your filing rights. It also reports a backlog of roughly eight to ten weeks before a new complaint is assigned to an intake investigator. Plan the year backwards from the signature, not forwards from the questionnaire.

This is one of the few places where a worker in one of our five states gets meaningfully more time for one ground than another. If you are in Washington and were pushed out over a pregnancy, you have twice the state window a race or disability claim would get. Do not spend it.

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The two federal laws, and what each one is for

Title VII, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, is the anti-discrimination piece. It covers current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential pregnancy, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth including lactation.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is the accommodation piece. It took effect on June 27, 2023 and requires covered employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for a known limitation related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless doing so is an undue hardship. The EEOC began accepting PWFA charges on that date. Both laws apply to employers with 15 or more employees.

Either way you are filing a charge with the EEOC, and the ordinary charge deadline applies: 180 days, extended to 300 where a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting discrimination on the same basis. California, Texas, Washington and Nevada all have one.

There is a large exception to that last paragraph. If a federal agency employs you, or you applied to one, the charge process is not your process. The EEOC's guidance for the federal sector says you generally have to contact an agency EEO Counselor within 45 days of the act, with an extension available only in certain circumstances, and counseling comes before any formal complaint. Postal workers, VA staff, and anyone else on a federal payroll should treat 45 days as the number that governs, not 180 and not 300.

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California, Texas, Nevada and Colorado state windows

California: three years to file with the Civil Rights Department. California also has its own pregnancy leave provision. It is unlawful for an employer to refuse to let an employee disabled by pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition take leave "for a reasonable period of time not to exceed four months," and unlawful to refuse a requested accommodation for a pregnancy-related condition on the advice of the employee's health care provider.

Texas: 180 days. Texas treats pregnancy as sex discrimination by statute, providing that discrimination because of sex "includes discrimination because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition," and that an affected worker must be treated the same as another worker similar in ability or inability to work.

Nevada: 300 days. The Nevada Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act requires the employer and employee to "engage in a timely, good faith and interactive process" over an accommodation, and makes it an unlawful employment practice to refuse a reasonable accommodation absent undue hardship, to take adverse action because an employee requested or used one, or to force leave when an accommodation would work.

Colorado: 300 days to file with the Colorado Civil Rights Division. CADA lists pregnancy among its protected categories at employers of all sizes, and Colorado separately requires employers to engage with reasonable accommodation requests for pregnancy and related conditions, with paid sick leave accruing under the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act.

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Washington's accommodation law has a different enforcer

Washington workers should know about a second statute that does not sit inside the discrimination chapter at all. RCW 43.10.005 makes it an unfair practice to refuse reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, to take adverse action against someone who requests or uses one, or to require leave when another accommodation would work.

Two features make it distinct. It applies to employers with fifteen or more employees rather than the eight-employee threshold used elsewhere in the discrimination chapter. And it is enforced by the attorney general, who "shall investigate complaints and enforce this section," while a person injured by a violation also has a civil cause of action in court.

The statute also removes the undue-hardship excuse for certain specific accommodations, including more frequent or longer restroom breaks, modifying a no food or drink policy, seating, and limits on lifting over seventeen pounds.

We are not stating a filing deadline for that route here, because the statute does not set one on its face. If that is the claim you have, ask a lawyer what limitation period applies before you rely on any number.

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