Losing a pregnancy or facing reproductive loss is devastating. In the immediate aftermath, the last thing anyone should have to worry about is whether their job is safe while they take time to grieve. California law now makes clear that it isn’t optional: if you work for a qualifying employer and you experience a reproductive loss, you are entitled to protected leave. Most employees in California have never heard of this law. Many employers are banking on that.
What Is Reproductive Loss Leave Under SB 848?
California Senate Bill 848 took effect on January 1, 2024. It created a standalone category of protected leave specifically for reproductive loss, separate from bereavement leave, disability leave, or any other existing category. Before SB 848, employees who experienced pregnancy loss often had to cobble together whatever protections they could find: short-term disability if their own physical condition qualified, PDL if the loss occurred late enough in pregnancy, or whatever bereavement policy their employer happened to offer. SB 848 changed that by creating an explicit, independent right to leave.
Under the law, reproductive loss leave is defined as leave taken following a qualifying event. It is not a general wellness benefit, and it is not discretionary. If you work for a covered employer and experience a qualifying reproductive loss event, the right to take up to five days of leave is yours.
Who Qualifies for Reproductive Loss Leave?
The leave is available to employees who work for employers with five or more employees. This threshold aligns with California’s FEHA coverage, and it means that the vast majority of Bay Area tech employees are covered, whether they work for a startup of ten people or a company of ten thousand.
The employee must also have worked for the employer for at least 30 days before the qualifying event. That’s it. There is no minimum hours-per-week requirement, no tenure threshold beyond 30 days, and no limitation based on full-time versus part-time status.
What Counts as a Qualifying Reproductive Loss Event?
SB 848 defines the qualifying events broadly and without gestational restrictions. They include:
- A failed pregnancy, which covers miscarriage at any stage
- A stillbirth
- A failed surrogacy
- A failed adoption
- A failed assisted reproduction, which includes failed IVF cycles and similar medical procedures
California did not limit this law to losses that occur late in pregnancy or only to biological parents. An employee who loses a pregnancy at six weeks has the same rights under SB 848 as an employee who experiences a stillbirth. An employee whose IVF transfer did not result in a pregnancy, or whose embryo did not survive, qualifies just as an employee who carried a pregnancy to term before losing it. The law also covers both the employee who experienced the reproductive loss directly and, in relevant circumstances, the employee whose partner, surrogate, or intended child was involved in the qualifying event.
How Many Days Off Are You Entitled To?
SB 848 provides up to five days of reproductive loss leave per qualifying event. The days do not have to be taken consecutively. If you need to take two days immediately after the loss and three days later when the grief hits differently, that is permitted.
If an employee experiences more than one qualifying reproductive loss event within a 12-month period, the total leave is capped at 20 days within that period. This matters for employees going through repeated pregnancy loss or multiple failed IVF cycles: situations that are far more common than most employers acknowledge.
Is the Leave Paid or Unpaid?
SB 848 does not mandate that reproductive loss leave be paid. However, employers must allow employees to use any accrued paid leave during the reproductive loss leave period. That includes sick leave, vacation, PTO, or any other paid leave the employer makes available. Employers cannot require employees to exhaust other leave first, but employees have the right to apply accrued paid leave to the absence.
For California tech employees, many of whom have substantial accrued PTO, this means the leave may effectively be paid. For employees without accrued leave or at employers with stingy accrual policies, some or all of the leave may be unpaid, but it is still protected.
Can Your Employer Deny You This Leave?
No. If you work for a covered employer, have worked there for at least 30 days, and experience a qualifying reproductive loss event, your employer cannot deny your leave request. The law is mandatory, not discretionary.
What your employer can require is reasonable notice, provided the circumstances permit it. If you need to take leave unexpectedly because of a sudden loss, your employer cannot hold a failure to give advance notice against you. Employers may also request documentation, though the law sets limits on what they can demand and how they can handle what you provide.
One important timing note: the leave must be taken within three months of the qualifying event. This does not mean you must take all five days immediately, but the leave window is tied to the event date.
Confidentiality Protections
Any information your employer receives about your reproductive loss, including that you requested leave at all, must be kept confidential. The law prohibits employers from disclosing this information, with narrow exceptions. This is particularly meaningful in smaller workplaces or on close-knit teams where an employee might worry about word spreading. Your reproductive loss is private. Your employer is legally required to treat it that way.
What If Your Employer Retaliates?
Retaliation for taking reproductive loss leave is illegal. That means your employer cannot terminate you, demote you, reduce your hours, change your schedule, give you a negative performance review, pass you over for a promotion, or take any other adverse action because you exercised your rights under SB 848.
Retaliation in this context often looks subtle rather than overt. An employee returns from reproductive loss leave and suddenly finds themselves excluded from meetings they previously attended. Their projects get quietly reassigned. Their manager’s tone shifts. A performance improvement plan appears for the first time. None of these are coincidences, and all of them can give rise to a claim.
California also prohibits employers from interfering with your right to take reproductive loss leave in the first place. A supervisor who discourages you from taking leave, tells you the team can’t afford your absence, or implies that taking time off will affect your standing is already crossing a legal line.
How SB 848 Interacts With Other Leave Laws
Reproductive loss leave under SB 848 does not run concurrently with other protected leave in most cases. It is designed to be an additional protection, not a substitute for existing rights.
Depending on the circumstances of your loss, you may also have rights under PDL (Pregnancy Disability Leave), CFRA, or California’s general bereavement leave law, which took effect in 2023. If your pregnancy loss resulted in a physical or psychiatric medical condition that prevents you from working, PDL or a separate medical leave may apply on top of or separately from SB 848 leave. These overlapping protections are worth understanding, because stacking them correctly can make a significant difference in how much total protected time you have.
What Bay Area Tech Employees Should Know
California’s tech industry has a well-documented culture of productivity pressure, where taking time off can carry unspoken stigma and where employees are often reluctant to assert their legal rights out of fear they’ll be seen as less committed. Reproductive loss intersects with that culture in a particularly painful way: employees who are already grieving often find themselves minimizing what happened because they don’t want to appear vulnerable at work.
SB 848 exists precisely to counter that dynamic. The Legislature recognized that reproductive loss is a serious life event that warrants protected time and legally mandated privacy, not a PTO request subject to manager approval, not something an employee should have to disclose in detail, and not a situation where your employer gets to decide whether your grief is legitimate enough to warrant a few days away from your desk.
If you work in tech and your employer has five or more employees, you have these rights regardless of your title, your team, your manager, or your company’s leave policy. A company handbook that provides fewer than five days of reproductive loss leave, or that omits this category of leave entirely, does not override California law.
If Your Employer Is Refusing Your Leave
If your employer has denied your reproductive loss leave request, discouraged you from taking it, required you to provide documentation beyond what the law permits, or treated you adversely after you returned, you may have a claim. Deadlines for filing employment claims in California are specific and can run out faster than most people expect. Acting sooner rather than later preserves your options.
Le Clerc & Le Clerc, LLP represents California employees in employment law matters, including claims arising from leave violations and retaliation. Our consultations are confidential, and we handle cases on a contingency basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you. If you have questions about your rights after a reproductive loss, contact us to speak with an attorney.