Important E-Alert: FLSA Amended to Require Break Times for Breastfeeding Moms

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contained a very tiny provision within its nearly one thousand pages that amended the Fair Labor Standards Act.  This FLSA amendment found in 29 U.S.C. 207 (r)(1) requires employers covered under the FLSA to provide a reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk and to allow for such breaks for up to one year after the child's birth.  Employers must furnish employees expressing milk with “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public."  Under the new amendment, breaks do not need to be compensated.  What would constitute "reasonable break time" was not defined. 

Employers of less than 50 employees may be excused from providing breaks for expressing breast milk, but only if doing so would create an “undue hardship.”  The new amendment defines “undue hardship” as a hardship that causes significant difficulty or expense and is measured by the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.

Although many states already have their own laws pertaining to expressing breast milk, employers in states that do not , such as in Massachusetts, must now make sure they provide reasonable breaks for expressing breast milk and secure a private place for this to occur. Employers that are in states that have these laws in place, like Connecticut and Vermont, must adhere to whichever law is most favorable to the employee.