Can an employer ask if you are pregnant? A comparison by country
Six statutes answer the interview question in different ways. Norway is the only one here that names it: an employer may not collect information about an applicant’s pregnancy, adoption or plans to have children, interview included. Australia and Canada ban requests or inquiries that rest on a prohibited ground, and France lets an employer ask only what tests the applicant’s ability to do the job. Germany and the United States say that a refusal to hire because of pregnancy is sex discrimination but do not mention questions at all.
Scope of this guide
Canada: the Canada Labour Code (federal sector) and the Ontario statutes that LawAsked has loaded. Other provinces are not compared.
United States: federal law only. State law is not compared.
| Country | Pregnancy in hiring | Questions at interview |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Discrimination in offering the job is unlawful | Unlawful to request information where discriminating on that ground would be unlawful |
| Canada | Refusing to employ is a discriminatory practice; pregnancy counts as sex | An inquiry that implies a preference on a prohibited ground is a discriminatory practice |
| Germany | Less favourable treatment because of pregnancy is sex discrimination, hiring included | |
| France | A candidate may not be rejected because of pregnancy | Questions may only assess ability to do the job and must be directly linked to it |
| Norway | Discrimination because of pregnancy is banned, hiring included | Employer may not collect information about pregnancy, adoption or plans to have children |
| United States | Refusing to hire because of pregnancy is sex discrimination |
Country by country
Australia
- Rule
- Sex Discrimination Act 1984, ss 14 and 27
- Pregnancy and potential pregnancy are protected grounds. Section 27 bans requesting or requiring information, by form or otherwise, when the request would not be made of people who are not pregnant or potentially pregnant.
- An employer may still ask a person who is pregnant for medical information concerning the pregnancy (section 27(2)).
pregnancy or potential pregnancy, breastfeeding or family responsibilities: (a) in the arrangements made for the purpose of determining who should be offered employment It is unlawful for a person (the first person ) to request or require another person (the other person ) to provide informationa person who is pregnant to provide medical information concerning the pregnancy Canada
- Rule
- Canadian Human Rights Act ss 3, 7 and 8
- The Act covers federally regulated employers only; provincial employers fall under provincial human rights codes, which are not ingested.
- Section 8 targets inquiries that express or imply a limitation, specification or preference on a prohibited ground. It does not name pregnancy questions, but pregnancy is deemed to be a ground of sex.
Where the ground of discrimination is pregnancy or child-birth, the discrimination shall be deemed to be on the ground of sex. to refuse to employ or continue to employ any individual to make any written or oral inquiry that expresses or implies any limitation, specification or preference based on a prohibited ground of discrimination Germany
- Rule
- AGG §§ 2, 3 and 15
- The General Equal Treatment Act covers access to employment, including selection criteria and hiring conditions. It does not say whether an employer may ask about pregnancy, so that column is left empty.
- For a refusal to hire the compensation for non-pecuniary harm is capped at three monthly salaries where the applicant would not have been hired anyway (section 15(2)).
Eine unmittelbare Benachteiligung wegen des Geschlechts liegt in Bezug auf § 2 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 bis 4 auch im Falle einer ungünstigeren Behandlung einer Frau wegen Schwangerschaft oder Mutterschaft vor die Bedingungen, einschließlich Auswahlkriterien und Einstellungsbedingungen, für den Zugang zu unselbstständiger und selbstständiger Erwerbstätigkeit Die Entschädigung darf bei einer Nichteinstellung drei Monatsgehälter nicht übersteigen France
- Rule
- Code du travail, art. L1132-1 and L1221-6
- L1221-6 does not name pregnancy. It limits every question put to a candidate to the ability to hold the job or professional aptitude, with a direct and necessary link to the job.
- L1132-1 lists pregnancy (grossesse) among the grounds for which no one may be excluded from a recruitment procedure.
Aucune personne ne peut être écartée d'une procédure de recrutementde sa situation de famille ou de sa grossesse Les informations demandées, sous quelque forme que ce soit, au candidat à un emploi ne peuvent avoir comme finalité que d'apprécier sa capacité à occuper l'emploi proposé ou ses aptitudes professionnelles.Ces informations doivent présenter un lien direct et nécessaire avec l'emploi proposé Norway
- Rule
- Likestillings- og diskrimineringsloven § 30; Arbeidsmiljøloven §§ 13-1 and 13-2
- Section 30 covers the whole hiring process, interviews included. Its exceptions (where the information is decisive for the work) list ethnicity, religion, disability and living arrangements, not pregnancy.
- The Working Environment Act sends pregnancy discrimination to the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act and covers advertising and hiring.
Arbeidsgivere må ikke i ansettelsesprosessen, herunder under intervju eller på annen måte, innhente opplysninger om en søkers graviditet, adopsjon eller planer om å få barn Ved diskriminering på grunn av kjønn, graviditet, permisjon i forbindelse med fødsel og adopsjon, omsorgsoppgaver utlysning av stilling, ansettelse United States
- Rule
- 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e(k) and 2000e-2(a)
- Federal law only (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act). The employer-size threshold and state laws are outside this table. The Act does not address questions at interview, so that column is left empty.
include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual Countries not in this table yet
The United Kingdom (Equality Act 2010), Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Japan are not shown: the ingested statutes for those countries do not state the rule on pregnancy in hiring or on questions at interview.
How this table was built
Every row is taken from the official, consolidated text of the statute, which LawAsked loads from each government’s legislation service.
Each figure is tied to a passage quoted word for word from that text. When the page is served, it checks that every quoted passage is still in the current text of a law that is in force; if a law is amended and its wording changes, that row is hidden until a person reviews it again.
The table shows the statutory minimum only. Collective agreements, awards and individual contracts often give more than the statute, and some countries let a collective agreement set different terms.
Use this data
The table and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit LawAsked and link to this page. Quoted statute text stays under the terms of its official source.
How to cite this page
LawAsked, “Can an employer ask if you are pregnant? A comparison by country”, https://lawasked.com/guides/pregnancy-questions-job-interview (reviewed October 25, 2026).
Important Legal Disclaimer
General legal information, not formal legal advice. The information provided on LawAsked does not constitute formal legal advice and creates no attorney-client relationship. If you require legal assistance, please consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.