One provision of the new health care reform law that has not received enough media attention (including this blog–mea culpa) is the new rule regarding reasonable break time for nursing mothers. An employer must provide a reasonable break time and a private place other than a bathroom for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth.
Employees with less than 50 employees may be exempt if this requirement would impose an undue hardship.
An employer does not have to compensate an employee for this break time.
State laws that provide employees with greater rights are not pre-empted by this new federal law.
There was no effective date specified for this provision, which means it was effective as of March 23, 2010, the date the President signed the bill.
