Break Time for Nursing Mothers: A Fact Sheet for Employers
On July 25, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a fact sheet addressing a recently enacted requirement – found in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – that employers provide reasonable break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk. The fact sheet is intended to offer guidance to employers with questions about the practical application of the new law.
The law, codified as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), requires that employers provide nursing mothers “reasonable break time” to express breast milk for 1 year following the child’s birth. Employers must provide such employees “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public.”
The fact sheet provides employers with the following guidance in implementing the new law:
- Employers must provide a “reasonable” amount of break time as frequently as needed. The frequency and duration of breaks needed to express milk will likely vary.
- The location provided for nursing mothers must be “functional” as a space for expressing breast milk. A temporary or converted space for expressing milk or made available when needed is sufficient, provided the location is shielded from view and free from intrusion. A private bathroom is not a permissible place.
- Only employees who are not exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements are entitled to break time to express breast milk. (State laws may provide otherwise.)
- Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the requirement if compliance would impose an undue hardship. All employees, regardless of work site, are counted for purposes of this exemption.
- Employers are not required to compensate employees who take break time to express breast milk. However, if the employer already provides compensated short breaks to its employees, the employer must ensure that nursing mothers using such breaks to express breast milk are similarly compensated.
Additional guidance from the DOL is anticipated in the near future. Employers can inform employees of their rights under the new law with CPC’s federal “Reasonable Break Time for Nursing Mothers” poster (#74215).