Nursing & Lactation

Employers must provide reasonable break times for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for a period of up to one year after the child’s birth. 

• The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.
• Employers are required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk. 
• If an employer already provides compensated breaks, an employee who uses that break time to express milk must be compensated in the same way that other employees are compensated for break time. Additional breaks beyond the employer’s allotted compensated breaks do not need to be paid.