Sponsors (22)
Introduced February 13, 2026 by Ayanna Pressley · Last progress February 13, 2026
The bill broadly extends and strengthens federal workplace anti‑discrimination and anti‑harassment protections (covering more people and entities and expanding remedies and support), at the trade‑off of significantly higher compliance, litigation, and implementation costs—especially for small employers and some government budgets—plus narrowed religious‑liberty defenses.
Workers broadly (including LGBTQ people, pregnant people, people with disabilities, older workers, veterans, interns, gig and contract workers, volunteers, and applicants) gain clearer, explicit federal anti‑discrimination and anti‑harassment protections and remedies across multiple statutes, increasing who can file claims and what conduct is prohibited.
Low-income, noncitizen, and other vulnerable workers gain greater access to legal help and advocacy through grants, funded outreach, and fee-shifting where NDAs are unlawfully enforced, making it easier and less costly to pursue claims.
Employees at covered workplaces (and many smaller workplaces via provided model policies) will receive required written nondiscrimination policies, accessible translations, and interactive training for supervisors and employees, improving awareness and helping prevent harassment.
Small business owners and other employers face substantially higher compliance, training, translation, documentation, and potential litigation costs, which may be passed on to consumers or workers through higher prices or reduced wages.
Very small employers and sole proprietors are newly subject to federal employment laws because the employer-size threshold is effectively lowered, dramatically expanding who can be sued under these statutes.
Broader remedies, expanded damages language, and increased awards and defense costs raise the risk of larger payouts and higher taxpayer exposure for government employers, increasing potential fiscal impacts.
Based on analysis of 17 sections of legislative text.
Requires covered employers to adopt/publish nondiscrimination policies and training, expands sex discrimination to include sexual orientation/gender identity, extends protections to many nonemployees, updates contractor rules, and creates a grants program.
Requires employers with 15 or more employees to adopt, publish, and regularly update comprehensive nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policies and to provide training; expands federal sex discrimination law to explicitly include sexual orientation, gender identity, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, and pregnancy-related conditions; extends many federal workplace protections to nonemployee workers (independent contractors, interns, volunteers, trainees, and applicants) when engaged by covered employers or covered establishments; revises remedies for certain discrimination claims; updates federal contractor labor compliance rules and procurement reporting; and creates a competitive grant program administered by the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau to prevent and respond to workplace discrimination and harassment. The bill gives the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission authority to issue regulations, requires employer policies to be accessible in plain English, translated and disability-accessible formats, sets civil penalties for employer noncompliance, and sets deadlines for agencies to reissue and align procurement and contractor compliance rules. It also includes a standard severability clause.