Break Time for Nursing Mothers
This month, the Department of Labor issued a Fact Sheet that detailed a nursing mothers rights to express milk while at work.
According to the Fact Sheet, a nursing mother has the following rights at work:
- she is entitled to reasonable break time to express milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child's birth each time she has a need to express the milk.
- She is entitled to have a private location (bathrooms do not qualify) to express her milk.
- If employees are normally compensated for break time, then the mother would also be entitled to compensation for the time spent expressing her milk. Otherwise she is not entitled to compensation for this time.
There are limits on these rules. First, these rules only apply to non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This would exclude managers, professionals such as doctors and lawyers, most people who earn over 100K per year, and any other exempt employee.
These rules do not apply to employers with less than 50 employees if compliance would impose an undue hardship.
Thanks to the Connecticut Employment Law Blog for its post on this subject today.
