Pregnancy discrimination? Don ’t rely on government for additional protection

A couple of recentNew York Times articles discuss pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. In its most recent spread, theTimesoutlines a variety of stories of expectant mothers losing jobs or job responsibilities and  cites the growing number of pregnancy-related Equal Employment Opportunity complaints to imply rates of pregnancy discrimination may be increasing.[1]As a solution, the article ’s authors propose pregnant women would be better off with additional government protection, perhaps similar to the protection afforded to Americans with disabilities. TheTimesshould be careful what it wishes for.While arguing for added protections for pregnant women, theTimes forgets to mention that rights to accommodation for people with disabilities didn ’t work out as planned. One study finds the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990reduced“employment of disabled men of all working ages and disabled women under age 40.”Other evidence finds the ADAreduced employment rates for men with disabilities by 7.2 percentage points and was “associated with lower relative earnings” and “slightly lower labor force participation rates” for people with disabilities.Indeed, when ADA took effect in 1990, 28.4 percent of people with disabilities were employed (compared with 78.4 percent of non-disabled persons). In 2014, the employment rate for people with disabilities had fallen to 12.9, or less than half of the 1990 figure. The employment rate didn ’t changed much for non...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 2, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Vanessa Brown Calder Source Type: blogs