Nevada first included sex as a protected category in 1967. That
year, the legislature passed Assembly Bill No. 7, which included
for the first time sex discrimination as an unlawful employment
practice. Twenty-one years later, in 1989, Nevada passed
legislation that required employers to provide pregnant employees
the same benefits provided to other employees due to sickness or
disability related to a medical condition. Fast forward another 28
years. On June 2, 2017, Governor Sandoval signed into law Senate
Bill No. 253, which greatly expands the legal protections for
pregnant employees.
The new law, the Nevada Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act, is
actually much broader than the name implies. The Act makes it an
unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to provide a
reasonable accommodation to a female employee or applicant for a
condition relating to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical
condition. It is also an unlawful employment practice to
