Updated September 2026. This article is for general information and is not legal advice; confirm requirements with employment counsel in each state where you operate.
For most of the last decade, menopause at work was treated as a private matter — something women managed quietly, if at all. That is ending. Since January 1, 2026, at least 16 menopause-related bills have been introduced in state legislatures, up from three in all of 2025. One state already requires menopause accommodations. A major city follows in January. A federal bill is now sitting in committee. If you lead HR, People & Culture, or a business with more than a handful of employees, this is the year menopause became a workplace policy issue — and the employers who prepare now will be the ones who are not scrambling later.
Why legislators are moving now
The economics are hard to ignore. A Mayo Clinic study of 4,440 employed women aged 45 to 60, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, found that 13.4% had experienced at least one adverse work outcome because of menopause symptoms and 10.9% had missed at least one day of work. The authors put the cost at $1.8 billion a year in lost U.S. work productivity, and $26.6 billion once medical expenses are included.
The support gap is just as stark. In an October 2025 Ipsos survey of 3,000 American women aged 35 to 54, commissioned by OLLY and Carrot, 45% of employed women with symptoms said those symptoms affected their work performance, 23% had considered reducing their hours, and 64% said their employer offered no formal menopause benefits at all. Only 11% were even aware of an HR benefit that addressed menopause.
Roughly one in two women in any workforce is navigating perimenopause or menopause right now. When half your female talent is affected and two-thirds of them say you offer nothing, legislators eventually notice.
Where the law stands: state by state
Rhode Island — the first state to require menopause accommodations
In 2025 Rhode Island became the first state to add menopause to its workplace accommodation requirements (S0361). Employers must provide reasonable accommodations for menopause-related conditions — the law’s examples include temperature controls, flexible schedules, and remote work. If you have employees in Rhode Island, this is already binding.
Philadelphia — protections take effect January 1, 2027
In December 2025 Philadelphia amended its workplace-bias ordinance to cover menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause. Employers in the city must accommodate symptoms that affect job performance beginning January 1, 2027 — which means policies, manager training, and accommodation processes need to be in place this fall.
Virginia — passed, then narrowed
Virginia’s General Assembly passed HB 1173 / SB 258, which would have added menopause and perimenopause accommodations to the Virginia Human Rights Act. The governor returned the bill with amendments that removed the accommodation mandate in favor of a state workforce study. Watch this one: the study is a precursor, not a dead end, and a companion insurance-coverage bill (SB 790) has moved separately.
California — a protected-category bill is pending
AB 1940 would designate menopause as a protected condition and treat failure to accommodate as sex-based discrimination. California has vetoed menopause insurance-coverage bills twice, in 2024 and 2025, but did pass AB 2270, which lets clinicians earn licensing credit for menopause education. Given California’s influence on national HR practice, a pass here would reset expectations everywhere.
Illinois, New York, and New Jersey — leave and remote-work proposals
Illinois has two live bills: HB 5284, covering discrimination, accommodations, and health-plan coverage, and SB 2967, the Menstrual Health Workplace Equity Act, which would provide up to 40 hours of paid leave a year for conditions including menopause. New York’s A5436 would ban discrimination and require accommodations for menopause and perimenopause, while S9244 would mandate five paid days a year for menopause care. New Jersey’s SB 3057 would require at least two remote-work days a month for qualifying conditions. Illinois has also created a permanent statewide Menopause Awareness Week and mandated insurance coverage for treatment.
Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Maine — coverage and education
Several states have moved on the health-insurance side rather than the workplace side: Oregon (HB 3064) and Washington (HB 1971) now require coverage of menopause treatment for some patients, Louisiana mandates coverage, and Maine directs its health department to publish menopause materials. These are not employer mandates, but they change what your benefits plan is expected to include.
The federal bill: the Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act
On July 14, 2026, Representatives Debbie Dingell and Yvette Clarke introduced H.R. 9671, the Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act. It is modeled on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and would apply to employers with 15 or more employees. Four accommodations would be presumptively reasonable — carrying water, additional restroom breaks, switching between sitting and standing, and eating or drinking breaks — with the EEOC able to expand the list. Employers would have to keep menopause-related medical information confidential and could not force leave when another accommodation would work. Enforcement would run through the EEOC with Title VII remedies.
As employment lawyers have noted, most bills at this stage never reach a floor vote. But the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took a decade to pass and then became law almost overnight. The direction of travel is clear.
What this means for employers — even where nothing has passed
Three points worth internalizing.
First, menopause may already be covered in your state. Severe symptoms can qualify as a disability under the ADA and state equivalents, and adverse treatment of women in midlife can be sex or age discrimination under existing law. Legislation is making the obligation explicit, not creating it from nothing.
Second, the pattern is accommodation plus culture. Every bill above pairs a legal duty (accommodate, don’t discriminate, keep records confidential) with an implied cultural one: managers need to know what perimenopause and menopause are, how symptoms show up at work, and how to have the conversation without embarrassment or liability. You cannot accommodate what your managers cannot recognize.
Third, training is the cheapest compliance step and the one employees notice most. Policy documents sit in a portal. A workshop changes how a manager responds the next time a high performer says she hasn’t slept in a week. It is also the step most employment counsel recommend first, because it creates a record of good-faith effort.
A practical 90-day checklist for HR
Map your headcount against the jurisdictions above and flag Rhode Island and Philadelphia as immediate. Review your accommodation policy and add menopause and perimenopause explicitly — and confirm your medical-information handling would satisfy a confidentiality requirement. Brief your benefits broker on coverage expectations in Oregon, Washington, Illinois, and Louisiana. Train managers and HR on what menopause is and how to respond; then run an all-staff session so employees know support exists and how to ask for it. Finally, give women a way to understand their own patterns: a symptom-tracking tool such as Harmoni® by thePause® helps an employee walk into an accommodation conversation with data rather than apology, and our perimenopause and menopause guides are free to share internally.
If you want help with the training piece, our 60-minute virtual and 90-minute in-person workshops are led by Dr. Mia Chorney, DNP — board-certified in menopause — and Susan Sly, and are built for exactly this moment: employees who understand what is happening to them, and leaders who know what to do about it.
Sources
- Mayo Clinic News Network — Mayo Clinic study puts price tag on cost of menopause symptoms for women in the workplace (2023)
- Mayo Clinic Proceedings — Impact of Menopause Symptoms on Women in the Workplace
- Carrot — Menopause in the Workplace 2025 (OLLY/Carrot–Ipsos survey)
- Bloomberg Law — States Look to Protect Menopausal Workers as Federal Policy Lags
- WorkCare — States Move to Protect Employees with Disabling Menstrual and Menopause Symptoms
- Katie Couric Media — What’s Next for Menopause Legislation in Your State?
- Congress.gov — H.R. 9671, Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act of 2026
- The Employer Handbook — A New Bill Would Make Menopause Its Own Protected Category
- Jackson Lewis — Virginia’s Wide-Ranging Workplace Reforms
