Associated Press: Climate
As heat gets more extreme, pregnant farmworkers are increasingly at risk
By DORANY PINEDA, MELINA WALLING and ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG
Updated 8:42 AM EST, October 23, 2025
Unclear how sporadic regulations may benefit farmworkers
No federal heat protections exist in the U.S., although the Trump administration appears to be moving forward with a proposed rule. Some states, including California and Washington, have their own protections, while others, like Texas and Florida, have barred local governments from implementing their own. In states with protections, advocates say they’re not adequately enforced and pointed to a widespread distrust of reporting systems.
More than 30 states and cities have laws requiring employers to provide accommodations for pregnant workers. Most recently, 2023’s federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to pregnant workers, those who recently gave birth or have medical conditions related to birth or pregnancy unless they will cause the employer “undue hardship.” Other laws make it illegal to fire or discriminate due to those factors.
Even so, there aren’t enough legal protections for pregnant workers, said Ayana DeGaia, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington in Harborview. “It’s probably one of the reasons why we have some of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in high-income countries in the world,” she said.
It’s also unclear how some of these protections benefit women farmworkers, said Alexis Handal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, who led a recent study examining the experiences of the state’s women farmworkers.
In Florida, a top U.S. producer of indoor plants and tropical foliage, the nursery industry’s mostly women workers have joined a fight for heat protections. In California, workers have been advocating for guaranteed compensation when they lose wages due to heat waves and other extreme weather events, as well as extra pay when they work during dangerous weather conditions.