Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry
Minnesota is now the third state to offer paid break time for nursing and lactating employees to express milk at work.
Following Georgia and Illinois, effective Jan. 1, 2022, employers in Minnesota will no longer be allowed to reduce an employee’s compensation for break times used to express milk at work; a welcome change for the approximately 44,000 working Minnesota parents who have given birth in the previous year.
The law change also allows more pregnant employees – those who work for an employer with 15 or more employees – to have the right to request and receive a pregnancy accommodation in the workplace, such as more frequent restroom, food and water breaks and limits to heavy lifting.
Under the new law, an estimated 27,000 more workers of childbearing age in Minnesota will be able to request and receive a pregnancy accommodation at work.
The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI), which ensures compliance with wage and hour laws, proposed these changes to the law after contracting with Wilder Research in 2019 to get feedback about pregnant and new parents’ experiences in the workplace. In the findings, DLI learned new parents faced barriers to expressing milk at work, such as not being able to take breaks when needed and having to stay late to make up for any break time used. The research also found that while many pregnant employees did not need an accommodation in the workplace, those who did often did not...
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