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Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee signed the nation’s first menopause accommodation requirements into law earlier this summer.
Effective June 24, an employer operating in the Ocean State must protect and reasonably accommodate employees experiencing symptoms of menopause unless it can show evidence that providing such an accommodation would cause undue hardship to the business. The state becomes the first to protect women experiencing symptoms of menopause, which can include vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes or night sweats, brain fog, migraines, and others.
“Menopause is a difficult and personal subject that has been stigmatized in this country, but as something that affects half our populations, it’s time we recognize it as a workforce issue—especially as our workforce ages along with our population,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Lori Urso (D), in a statement about its passage. “The current lack of protections contributes to inadequate retirement savings and lost leadership opportunities for women, and poses an economic challenge for employers facing workforce shortages and the loss of experienced employees.”
The new measure updates the state’s Fair Employment Practices regulations to pregnancy accommodations, and makes it unlawful for an employer to deny reasonable accommodation requests to employees or job applicants experiencing symptoms related to pregnancy, childbirth, and now menopause, or medical needs such as accommodations related to lactation or hot flashes.
“With respect to pregnant employees, it is an unlawful employment practice here in Rhode Island to refuse to reasonably accommodate either an applicant for employment or an employee who is pregnant or has a pregnancy-related medical condition,” said Gregory Tumolo, shareholder and co-chair of the handbooks and policies practice group at Littler, a nationwide employment and labor law firm.
“You can’t require a pregnant employee to take a leave of absence if they don’t want to take one.”
It also has a notice requirement, he added.
The same framework for employees experiencing pregnancy or related medical conditions will now be applied to those experiencing symptoms related to menopause, though the measure does not explicitly outline reasonable accommodations.
“What the drafters of this law did—and I don’t think this is a very elegant solution to the problem—is they took the existing pregnancy law and they just tacked on menopause and menopause-related conditions,” Tumolo said. “So if you read the law, it actually doesn’t make a lot of sense because when it describes a non-exhaustive list of potential accommodations, they are all related to pregnancy.”
Tumolo said accommodations such as amending dress codes for looser or cooler clothing, allowing employees to use fans or adjust the temperature of their workstation, permitting breaks or securing a private space to manage vasomotor symptoms, may address employee needs.
“Folks need to realize that sometimes just having a conversation, asking someone what they need is how you get this process started,” he said. “Oftentimes, when an employee has a health condition [or] a disability, they are in the best possible position to know what they need and how they need it. So trust the employees.”
What’s HR to do? Employers must post clear and accessible notices about these new protections in Rhode Island workplaces and make them clear by October 2025, at the time of hire, and also within 10 days of being notified of a menopause-related condition.
HR leaders should update their internal policies and onboarding materials, notify employees living in Rhode Island of the new law, train managers to take menopause accommodations as seriously as pregnancy, and outline how to handle accommodation requests, according to a blog posted by Tumolo.
“In light of this law, maybe you want to create an employee resource group for folks that are experiencing menopause, or maybe you want to offer employee assistance program resources to folks that are struggling emotionally with what’s happening to them and want to talk to someone,” Tumolo said. “There’s more than just an accommodation piece to this. If you want to make your workplace menopause friendly.”
Some HR leaders are already ahead of lawmakers when it comes to supporting employees experiencing menopausal symptoms. HR Brew previously reported that in 2025, 18% of companies will or plan to provide menopause benefits to employees, up from 15% in 2024. There are even organizations working to credit businesses for supporting employees experiencing these symptoms.
“I suspect that many other states will realize that this is a gap in their fair employment laws and a gap in their protections, and will want to expand the protections in this way,” Tumolo said. “I would envision in the next four to five years, there will be probably other states that are doing this.”
