On December 29, 2022, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP) was signed into law. PUMP further amends the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by extending protections for employees who need to express breast milk at work. PUMP broadens the available remedies for violations and extends employee coverage requirements. The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (the DOL) recently issued guidance on PUMP’s requirements.
In 2010, Section 7 of the FLSA was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to include break time and lactation space requirements for employees who needed to express breast milk at work. Those break time and lactation space requirements are addressed in detail below and remain substantively unchanged with the enactment of PUMP. However, PUMP further amends the FLSA to extend its reasonable break time and lactation space protections to pump breast milk at work to as many as 9 million more employees, including FLSA-exempt employees who were not previously covered by the Affordable Care Act’s amendment.
Furthermore, PUMP amends the FLSA to provide a private right of action for aggrieved employees and clarifies how time spent pumping counts as hours worked for minimum wage and overtime purposes if an employee is not completely relieved from their duties during the break.
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