South Carolina Pregnancy Accommodations Act: Requests, Denials, and Remedies

The South Carolina Pregnancy Accommodations Act gives workers at employers with 15 or more employees the right to reasonable workplace adjustments for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, including lactation. Signed into law on May 17, 2018, the Act amended the state’s Human Affairs Law to list specific accommodations your employer must consider, to spell out what counts as pregnancy discrimination, and to protect you from retaliation when you speak up.¹

Who the Law Covers

The Act reaches any employer with 15 or more employees for each working day in at least 20 calendar weeks during the current or preceding calendar year.² Both full-time and part-time workers count toward that threshold. Indian tribes and bona fide private membership clubs other than labor organizations are excluded.

The protected conditions are pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, and the statute explicitly includes lactation. That means nursing parents keep their rights after returning to work. “Related medical conditions” is broad language that reaches physical complications like morning sickness, gestational diabetes, and recovery from a C-section. Employees affected by these conditions must be treated the same as other workers who are similar in their ability or inability to work, including when it comes to fringe benefits.

Accommodations You Can Request

The statute lists specific adjustments your employer must consider when you have a medical need arising from pregnancy, childbirth, or a related condition:³

More frequent or longer breaks, including bathroom breaks and time for hydration or snacks
Permission to sit if your job normally requires standing
A private space, other than a bathroom stall, shielded from view and free from intrusion, for expressing milk
Modified food or drink rules at your workstation
Help with manual labor and limits on lifting
Temporary transfer to a less strenuous or hazardous vacant position you are qualified for
Light duty or restructuring of non-essential duties when light duty is available
Acquisition or modification of equipment needed to perform essential job functions
Modified schedules, including start times, end times, or shift assignments

Your employer does not have to build a permanent, dedicated lactation room, but that exception does not excuse providing a suitable temporary space or other accommodations. South Carolina also passed a separate Lactation Support Act in 2020 that reinforces the right to reasonable unpaid break time and space for expressing milk.

What Your Employer Cannot Do

The Act lists five categories of unlawful conduct:⁴

Refusing a reasonable accommodation for a pregnancy-related medical need, unless the employer can prove undue hardship
Denying an applicant a job or an employee a promotion because accommodating her limitations would be inconvenient
Forcing an accommodation the employee did not ask for and does not need to perform her essential duties
Requiring an employee to take leave when a reasonable accommodation would let her keep working
Taking adverse action against an employee for requesting or using an accommodation

The forced-leave prohibition matters. Before this law, some employers routinely pushed pregnant workers onto unpaid leave rather than adjusting their duties. If a schedule change, temporary reassignment, or equipment modification would solve the problem, your employer cannot default to sending you home.

How to Request an Accommodation

There is no required form. You tell your employer, usually through HR or your direct supervisor, that you have a medical need arising from pregnancy and describe what adjustment would help. That opens what employment lawyers call the interactive process, a back-and-forth meant to land on a workable solution.

Most employers will ask for documentation from your healthcare provider. A clear letter helps. A doctor’s note might specify a lifting restriction of 20 pounds or a need for 15-minute rest breaks every two hours. Match the language in your medical documentation to the types of accommodations the statute lists, since HR is looking for a direct connection between the medical restriction and the workplace adjustment.

Keep copies of everything: your initial request, medical notes, email exchanges, and your employer’s responses. A paper trail is the difference between a strong claim and a he-said-she-said problem later. If your employer proposes a different accommodation than the one you asked for, you are not required to accept it if the alternative is unnecessary for you to do your job or does not match an actual limitation you have.⁴

Your employer is also required to give new hires written notice of these rights and to post a workplace notice. If you never received that notice, your protections still apply, and the omission may be useful evidence if a dispute arises.

When an Employer Can Say No

Every accommodation is subject to an undue hardship defense. An employer can decline a specific request if it would create significant difficulty or expense, judged against four factors: the cost of the accommodation, the resources and operations at the specific facility, the overall size and finances of the business, and the nature of the operation.³ A large multi-location company will have a much harder time proving hardship than a 20-person single-office business. The burden is on the employer to prove it, not on you to disprove it.

The Act also carves out things your employer never has to do unless it would do them for other employees needing accommodations: hire someone it would not otherwise have hired, displace a more senior employee, create a brand-new position (including a new light duty role), or pay you during additional break time that would otherwise be unpaid. That last point surprises people. If your extra breaks go beyond what is normally a paid break period, your employer can treat that time as unpaid.

Filing a Complaint If You’re Denied

If your employer ignores or denies your request, you can file a discrimination charge with the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. You can complete the online Employment Initial Intake Questionnaire on the SCHAC website or mail the form to the Columbia office at 1026 Sumter Street, Suite 101.⁵

You have 180 days from the date of the discriminatory act to file with SCHAC. If you miss that window but are still within 300 days, your complaint will be transferred to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Do not treat the 300-day backup as a safety net. Filing within 180 days preserves all your options under state law. The same 180-day deadline applies to retaliation claims, so if your employer demotes you, cuts your hours, or fires you after you asked for an accommodation, the clock starts on that adverse action.

What You Can Recover

Under South Carolina law, remedies are primarily equitable: reinstatement, hiring, back pay, and other equitable relief the court finds appropriate.⁶ Back pay cannot extend further than two years before the date you filed your charge.

If your case is pursued through federal channels under Title VII or the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, compensatory and punitive damages become available, capped by employer size:⁷

15 to 100 employees: up to $50,000
101 to 200 employees: up to $100,000
201 to 500 employees: up to $200,000
More than 500 employees: up to $300,000

Those caps apply to the combined total of compensatory damages (emotional distress, pain and suffering, inconvenience) and punitive damages. They do not limit back pay or equitable relief, which are calculated separately. For workers at larger employers, the federal route often provides a larger potential recovery.

How the Federal PWFA Fits In

South Carolina workers have layered protection. The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect in June 2023 and also applies to employers with 15 or more employees.⁸ Under the federal law, once your employer knows about a physical or mental condition related to pregnancy or childbirth, it must engage in an interactive process and provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so causes undue hardship.

The two laws overlap heavily, but the PWFA explicitly covers mental health conditions like postpartum depression or severe pregnancy-related anxiety, and it bars employers from interfering with your PWFA rights rather than only retaliating after the fact.⁹ Charges filed with SCHAC are typically dual-filed with the EEOC, so you can pursue whichever law gives you the stronger claim for your situation. An employment attorney can help you decide which route to prioritize before you file.

1
South Carolina Legislature. 2017-2018 Bill 3865: SC Pregnancy Accommodations Act
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 1-13-30 – Definitions
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 1-13-30 – Definitions
4
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 1-13-80 – Unlawful Employment Practices
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South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. How to File Employment Complaints
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South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 1-13-90 – Complaints, Investigations, Conciliations, Hearings, and Court Review
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnancy Discrimination and Pregnancy-Related Disability Discrimination