2022 PUMP Act expands lactation protections to exempt employees

Any person who has nursed an infant knows the time and energy that goes into breastfeeding. Working and nursing mothers need workplace accommodations to allow time, space, and grace to express milk during the workday. The federal government addresses that need in a new law. President Joe Biden recently signed the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act). The law fills in the gaps left by the 2010 Break Time for Nursing Mothers Act. The 2010 law applied only to nonexempt employees, leaving exempt employees with no protections, until now.

PUMP up the protections

Under the PUMP Act, certain employers must provide two accommodations to nursing mothers: (1) reasonable break time to express breastmilk for two years after the need to pump arises and (2) a private place to pump. The law notes that protections extend to employees who express milk after having a stillbirth or who provide breastmilk to a child the employee neither birthed nor has custody over. And “reasonable” break time will also depend on the employee’s specific needs, as different mothers spend different amounts of time nursing.

The law reiterates the requirement in the 2010 Act that the private pumping space cannot be a bathroom and goes on to state that the space must be both shielded from view and free from any intrusion by coworkers or the public. The time spent pumping is compensable unless the employee is completely relieved from duty for the entirety of the break. So the moms who have a private office where they can pump and continue to take calls at the same time will stay on the clock.