Before my daughter arrived, I was determined to breastfeed exclusively for as long as I could manage.
Breast milk provides excellent nutrition and health advantages, and mother’s milk isgenerally inexpensive, while formula can be costly. As a single parent with limited funds, that mattered a lot to me.
The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests mothers exclusively breastfeed for roughly the first six months, then continue nursing while introducing complementary foods until at least 1 year. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding up to age 2 or longer.
My early breastfeeding experience went fairly well, but I had to return to work 10 weeks after giving birth. That’s when things became difficult.
I pumped about twice a day in a grim bathroom — the only private place at my office. I was nervous about pumping beyond 10 or 15 minutes, yet I didn’t produce nearly enough milk in that short time and ultimately had to supplement with formula.
I never asked my employer for a better pumping space because I feared stirring up trouble. I also worried the fix would be to move me to a different office that had privacy, which would have meant a much longer commute from my newborn at home.
My story, sadly, is only one of many breast-pumping nightmare tales.
Thankfully, laws exist to protect working mothers and help make pumping on the job less stressful. Working to support your family shouldn’t require giving up how you feed your baby.
Understanding the Legal Protections
Cheryl Lebedevitch, senior workplace program manager and policy analyst at the United States Breastfeeding Committee, explained two federal laws that shield working mothers who need to express milk during work hours.
The Break Time for Nursing Mothers requirement, effective in 2010, is part of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
“It obligates employers to give reasonable break time in a private, non-bathroom area for eligible workers to pump during the workday for one year after the child’s birth,” Lebedevitch says.
Because it is embedded in the Fair Labor Standards Act, it covers employees who are classified as non-exempt and therefore eligible for overtime. That means the Break Time for Nursing Mothers provision typically applies to hourly workers, not salaried employees exempt from overtime.
Additionally, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act offers extra workplace protections for lactating women.
Enacted in 1964, the Civil Rights Act forbids sex-based discrimination, Lebedevitch notes. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 broadened sex discrimination to include pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.
For many years, however, lactation wasn’t explicitly recognized as a related medical condition, she says.
That shifted several years ago.
“In 2013, a court ruled that dismissing or discriminating against an employee because of lactation constituted pregnancy-related discrimination,” Lebedevitch explains. “Subsequent prominent cases led the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to update enforcement guidance to expressly cover lactation.”
Who’s Covered and How
Lebedevitch notes that both statutes can be confusing for most moms, which is why the USBC focuses on education and outreach.
“You shouldn’t need to be an attorney to figure out how to continue breastfeeding while working,” she says.
We discussed what nursing moms can expect in a variety of employment situations.
For example, part-time workers are covered by the Break Time for Nursing Mothers provision as long as they’re classified as non-exempt and eligible for overtime — they don’t have to actually clock overtime to qualify.
Employees who travel for work are protected as well. Lebedevitch explains the Department of Labor has indicated it’s the employer’s responsibility to ensure the employee is accommodated in the alternate location.
New hires can use the Break Time for Nursing Mothers protections immediately. There’s no minimum length of employment required for the law to apply.
Even employees at small companies are generally covered, a point Lebedevitch says is often misunderstood.
“All non-exempt employees covered by the FLSA are protected, regardless of employer size,” she says. “The statute includes an exemption for employers with 50 or fewer employees.”
The exemption allows an employer to claim undue hardship if compliance would impose significant expense or disrupt business operations, Lebedevitch explains.
However, she’s not aware of any instance where an undue hardship exemption has been granted. Given the flexibility around space and break schedules written into the law, qualifying for that exemption can be difficult.
Title VII protections apply to employers with 15 or more employees.
Pay, Breaks and Scheduling
Even though nursing mothers have a right to break time, those breaks for pumping don’t have to be paid time.
Employers aren’t required to compensate workers for pumping breaks, Lebedevitch says. But if an employee isn’t fully relieved of duty while pumping, that time must be counted as hours worked and paid.
Employers can’t legally set strict limits on how long or how often nursing employees take breaks to express milk.
“If investigated, [an employer] would not be in compliance with the law if they imposed restrictions that didn’t allow the employee to take breaks as needed,” Lebedevitch warns.
The Break Time for Nursing Mothers law doesn’t define “reasonable time.” That ambiguity can be helpful because mothers’ pumping requirements vary, she explains.
What about storing pumped milk? Having a safe place at work to keep expressed milk is important, Lebedevitch says.
That doesn’t always require a dedicated refrigerator; allowing the employee to keep a cooler at work can suffice.
Moves Toward Improvement
While existing federal laws don’t assist every nursing mom, proposed legislation could expand protections.
“There’s a bill we’ve supported in multiple congressional sessions called the Supporting Working Moms Act,” Lebedevitch says. “It would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to include salaried employees as well.”
The bill hasn’t advanced out of committee yet, but it has been gathering momentum.
States may also have their own statutes about pumping at work. When state law provides stronger protections than federal law, the state statute prevails, Lebedevitch says.
The USBC has cataloged state laws and turned that information into a set of state-by-state guides on breastfeeding employee rights.
Ensuring Employers Provide Reasonable Accommodations
Lebedevitch points out that supporting breastfeeding employees yields higher loyalty, improved productivity, lower healthcare expenses and reduced turnover.
But returning to work after having a baby can make conversations about pumping intimidating, especially when there’s no established policy.
Remember that accommodations don’t need to be elaborate — they don’t have to include a purpose-built nursing room.
“There are many low-cost or even cost-free solutions,” Lebedevitch says.
The Office on Women’s Health offers a resource titled Supporting Working Mothers at Work: Employer Solutions, which highlights how employers across many industries have accommodated lactating staff.
When requesting pumping accommodations, Lebedevitch suggests presenting potential solutions to your supervisor. She recommends phrasing it like: “This is a need I have, and here are ways we can address it to meet both my needs and the business’s needs.”
If an employer fails to comply, Lebedevitch advises filing complaints with each applicable enforcement agency.
The USBC provides a resource and referral guide pointing women to available assistance. Those seeking legal help can contact organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, A Better Balance or the Center for WorkLife Law.
Nicole Dow is a staff writer at Savinly. She likes covering parenting and personal finance topics.
