Rights for Nursing Mothers at Work

The New York Civil Rights Law § 79-e has protected a mother’s right to breastfeed in any public or private location since 1994, but it did not address the needs of nursing mothers at work. Since 2007, the New York State “Nursing Mothers’ Law” has expanded the rights of working mothers to express breast milk in the workplace and prevents any employer from discriminating against such employee for doing so for up to three years after childbirth. The statute mandates that all employers “make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, where an employee can express milk in privacy.” It also requires the employer to “provide reasonable unpaid break time or permit an employee to use paid break time or meal time each day to allow an employee to express breast milk.” N.Y. Lab. Law § 206-c (2009). Thus, all employers, and all employees who are nursing mothers of children aged 3 and under, are covered by this law.

For more information about the New York Nursing Mothers Law, see the recent posting on our Articles page, reprinted from the New York Women’s Bar Association March 2009 newsletter.