Lactation Accommodation: Mandatory Breaks for Breastfeeding in California

Are you returning to work from pregnancy leave but still planning to breastfeed your child? You may be wondering how you'll be able to manage breastfeeding when you're back at work. Like many other states, California has passed laws to assist nursing mothers in this regard.

Read on to find out what employers must do so that you can continue to breastfeed after returning to work.

Lactation Break Rights in California

California employers must provide a reasonable amount of break time whenever an employee needs to express milk. These breaks should be taken during the employee's usual meal and rest breaks, if possible. Such leave is unpaid unless it overlaps with an existing paid meal or rest break.

Unlike federal law and the laws of some states, California has no upper limit on how long after a child's birth the mother may continue to take lactation breaks. As long as the employee is nursing, she can take breaks to express breast milk.

Requirements for Lactation Spaces

Employers must provide a designated lactation space that is not a bathroom. The location must be private, safe, clean, and shielded from intrusion. At minimum, it must include a chair, a flat surface for equipment, and access to electricity.

Employees must also have access to a sink with running water and a refrigerator or other cooling device located near their workspace.

Written Lactation Accommodation Policies

California law requires every employer to implement a written lactation accommodation policy. This policy must be included in employee handbooks and distributed to all new hires and to any worker who asks about or takes parental leave.

The policy should explain employee rights, outline the process for requesting accommodations, and inform workers of their right to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner. If an employer cannot provide the required space or time, they must give the employee a written explanation.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Employers who fail to provide lactation breaks can face steep penalties. The Labor Commissioner can issue a fine of $100 per day for each violation. Employees may also be entitled to an additional hour of pay for each day their rights are denied.

In addition, California law prohibits retaliation. If an employee is punished or terminated for requesting lactation accommodations, the employer can face legal claims for retaliation or discrimination.

Covered Employers

Unlike several other California workplace laws requiring accommodation (for example, accommodation for employees with disabilities), which cover only employers with a certain minimum number of employees, the lactation accommodation law applies to all employers in the state regardless of size.

For employers with fewer than 50 employees, exemptions are possible if meeting these standards would cause undue hardship, but reasonable alternatives still must be offered.

Breast Feeding Versus Expressing Breast Milk

California law requires all employers to provide all nursing employees with breaks throughout the day to express breast milk. In general, the law does not provide working mothers with the right to breastfeed their infants at work. However, when an employer provides on-site childcare facilities, a working mother may be able to breastfeed her child during her breaks.

Lactation Breaks Under Federal Law

Under federal law, employers must provide lactation breaks for new mothers. Employers that are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (as most employers are) must provide nursing employees with reasonable unpaid breaks to express breast milk, for up to one year after the birth of a child.

These employers must provide nursing employees with a private place, other than a bathroom, that is protected from view or intrusion by coworkers or the public. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to provide breaks if it would cause undue hardship, meaning that it would be too difficult or costly given the employer's size, resources, and structure.

The FLSA provides break time only to hourly, nonexempt employees. Although exempt employees are not covered under the federal law, they are covered under California's lactation accommodation law. California law is broader in its protections for nursing mothers in other ways as well, as described above.