Catherwood LibraryILR School

Paid maternity leave is a benefit that currently doesn't exist at the major airlines, nor are accommodations for lactation common, as the Affordable Care Act exempts pilots from the requirement that employers accommodate new mothers. In a male-dominated industry - only four percent of the 159,000 certified airline pilots are female - there has been slow progress in making lactation arrangements and other accommodations for new mothers. Part of the difficulty lies in an unusual work environment - having to pump breast milk in a cockpit, or take a 20 minute break to do so, brings up both privacy issues and aircraft safety. Female pilots at Delta are banding together via Facebook groups to approach their airline unions with formal proposals for paid and unpaid maternity leave, while other pilots at Frontier Airlines are suing their employers on the basis of discrimination, seeking transfer to ground assignments while pregnant or in order to breastfeed.