The health care reform legislation passed in March included an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act that now requires employers to provide breaks to nursing mothers to pump breast milk for a one year period after giving birth to a child. The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued a fact sheet detailing employers’ obligations under this amendment to Section 7 of the FLSA.
Under the amended law, qualifying employees are entitled to a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as required by the nursing mother. The employer must provide its nursing employee with a private space, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view, free from intrusion by others, and functional as a space in which to express milk.
This new requirement applies only to employees who are not exempt from the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements. Employers do not need to compensate nursing mothers for breaks taken to express milk, but if they already provide compensated breaks, a nursing mother who uses that time to express milk must be compensated like any other employee.
