The PUMP Act: Federal Lactation Rights in the Workplace

The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, known as the PUMP Act, was signed into law on December 29, 2022 and took full effect in April 2023. The statute represents the most significant expansion of workplace protections for nursing employees since the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended in 2010 to require basic break-time and space accommodations. The PUMP Act fills gaps in the prior law, extends coverage to millions of workers who were previously excluded, and adds enforcement teeth that did not exist before.

For Ohio employees who need to express breast milk at work, understanding what the PUMP Act requires, who is covered, and how to enforce its requirements matters. This post walks through the law in detail, including how it interacts with the FMLA, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and Ohio Civil Rights Act protections.

What the PUMP Act Requires

The PUMP Act amended Section 7(r) of the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that covered employers provide:

• Reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk as often as needed for one year after the child's birth.
• A place to express milk that is not a bathroom, that is shielded from view, and that is free from intrusion by coworkers and the public.

The break time requirement is significant. "As often as needed" is a fact-specific standard that depends on the employee's individual physiological needs, not on a fixed schedule the employer might prefer. Some employees need to pump every two to three hours during a full workday. The law does not allow the employer to dictate the schedule beyond what is reasonable to the employer's operations.

The space requirement is equally significant. A bathroom is never acceptable, even a private bathroom. The space must be functional for the purpose: shielded from view, with a door or other privacy mechanism, and reasonably clean. It does not need to be a dedicated lactation room, and employers can use existing spaces such as offices, conference rooms, or storage areas that are converted to private space when needed. The law does not require employers to construct dedicated facilities for small numbers of nursing employees, but it does require functional privacy.

Compensation During Break Time

Whether break time must be paid depends on the employee's classification. Non-exempt (typically hourly) employees who use a regularly scheduled break to express milk must be paid for that time consistent with the employer's general break policy. If the employer pays for ordinary breaks, it must pay for pumping breaks taken during those windows. If the employer's standard break time is unpaid, pumping breaks taken outside of the regular work period generally are also unpaid.

The PUMP Act does not require employers to provide additional paid break time beyond what they otherwise provide. But the employer also cannot retaliate against an employee who takes the necessary time to pump even if some of that time exceeds the standard break schedule.

Who Is Covered

The PUMP Act significantly expanded coverage relative to the prior law. Before the PUMP Act, the FLSA's break-time provisions covered only non-exempt employees, leaving roughly 9 million salaried and exempt workers without federal lactation protections. The PUMP Act extends coverage to nearly all FLSA-covered employees, including:

• Salaried and exempt employees who were not covered under the prior FLSA provision.
• Most public-sector employees at federal, state, and local government employers.
• Most private-sector employees at FLSA-covered employers.

Some categories of workers remain outside the PUMP Act's scope, including certain airline crew members, railroad crew, and motorcoach operators, where the work environment makes the requirements impractical. Workers in those categories may still have rights under state law or under other federal accommodation statutes.

Employer Size and the Undue Hardship Exemption

Employers with fewer than 50 employees can claim an exemption from the PUMP Act's requirements if compliance would impose an undue hardship by causing significant difficulty or expense relative to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the business. The exemption is narrow. An employer claiming undue hardship bears the burden of showing it, and small inconveniences do not qualify. The exemption is most likely to apply when a very small employer genuinely cannot provide both private space and break time without disproportionate cost.

Most Ohio employers do not qualify for the small-employer exemption. The 50-employee threshold is measured at the employer level, not at individual worksites, and many small businesses are part of larger corporate structures that put them over the threshold.

The Private Right of Action

Before the PUMP Act, the prior FLSA lactation provisions had no private right of action. An employee whose employer denied break time or appropriate space could file an administrative complaint with the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, but could not sue directly. That was a meaningful gap, because administrative enforcement was slow and remedies were limited.

The PUMP Act created a private right of action. An employee who is denied the rights guaranteed by the statute can sue in federal court for:

• Lost wages caused by the employer's failure to comply.
• Compensatory damages for actual harm caused by the violation.
• Liquidated damages equal to the lost wages and compensatory damages, where the employer's violation was not in good faith.
• Equitable relief including reinstatement and other appropriate remedies for retaliation.
• Attorney's fees and costs for prevailing plaintiffs.

An employee who experiences retaliation for asserting PUMP Act rights, including by being terminated, demoted, or otherwise penalized for requesting break time or appropriate space, can pursue the same remedies plus reinstatement.

The Notice and Cure Provision

The PUMP Act includes a notice-and-cure provision that affects how violations are litigated. Before an employee can sue for failure to provide adequate break time or space, the employee must give the employer 10 days to remedy the violation, unless the employee has been terminated for asserting PUMP Act rights or unless the employer has indicated it will not comply.

This requirement is intended to give employers a chance to fix problems before they become litigation. In practice, the notice should be in writing and should specifically identify what is inadequate (insufficient break time, an unsuitable space, or both) so that the employer's response can be evaluated against the request. An employer that ignores the notice or responds with a clearly inadequate accommodation has put itself in a worse position than one that takes the notice seriously.

The notice-and-cure requirement does not apply to retaliation claims. An employee terminated for asserting PUMP Act rights can sue immediately without first giving the employer an opportunity to reinstate.

How the PUMP Act Interacts with Other Laws

The PUMP Act operates alongside several other federal and state laws that protect nursing employees.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

The PWFA, which took effect in June 2023, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, including lactation. The PWFA and the PUMP Act overlap. An employee whose lactation-related needs require accommodations beyond what the PUMP Act guarantees (different schedule flexibility, a closer space, particular equipment) may have separate PWFA claims. For more on the PWFA, see our PWFA explainer.

The Family and Medical Leave Act

The FMLA provides job-protected leave for the birth of a child and for serious health conditions related to childbirth. Lactation itself is not typically an FMLA-covered serious health condition, but conditions like mastitis or complications that arise during the postpartum period can be. The PUMP Act and FMLA address different things and operate together. See our FMLA for pregnant employees post for more.

Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act

Title VII, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, prohibits discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Lactation has been treated by federal courts as covered by the PDA. An employer that treats a lactating employee worse than other similarly limited employees may violate Title VII independent of the PUMP Act.

Ohio Civil Rights Act

Ohio R.C. 4112 prohibits pregnancy discrimination by employers with four or more employees. The Ohio statute covers smaller employers than federal law and provides parallel protections for lactating employees. State-law claims can be pursued alongside federal PUMP Act claims.

What to Do If Your Employer Is Not Complying

An employee facing PUMP Act violations should take several steps:

Document the requests. Make break-time and space requests in writing whenever possible. Save copies. The notice-and-cure provision rewards employees who can demonstrate what was requested and when.

Identify what is inadequate. The two requirements (reasonable time, appropriate space) are distinct. A complaint that specifies what is missing is more effective than a general complaint about the work environment. If the space is unsuitable, document why: location, privacy, cleanliness, equipment. If the time is inadequate, document the operational pattern: how often pumping is needed, what breaks are denied or curtailed, and the consequences.

Give the 10-day notice if needed. Unless the employer has terminated the employee or indicated it will not comply, the statute requires 10 days' notice before suit. Use that window to give the employer a clear chance to fix the problem. Document the response.

Preserve documentation if retaliation occurs. If the employer responds to a PUMP Act complaint with discipline, schedule changes, or termination, the timing and content of communications about those actions become critical evidence. The notice-and-cure requirement does not apply to retaliation claims, and an employer that retaliates is in a particularly weak position.

Consult with an attorney. PUMP Act claims have specific procedural requirements and overlapping causes of action that benefit from professional evaluation. Initial consultations are typically free, and the fee-shifting provisions of the statute mean that contingency arrangements are often available for strong cases.

Filing a Wage and Hour Complaint

Employees can also file an administrative complaint with the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. The DOL has authority to investigate and to obtain back pay and other relief. Administrative complaints and private litigation are not mutually exclusive, though strategic coordination matters. For some employees, the administrative path is sufficient. For others, particularly where retaliation or significant lost wages are involved, federal court litigation is more effective.

The Bottom Line

The PUMP Act is a meaningful expansion of federal protections for nursing employees. It covers most workers, requires real accommodation, and provides remedies for non-compliance and retaliation. Ohio employees who need to express milk at work should be aware of their rights and should assert them. Employers should treat PUMP Act requests as the legal obligations they are, not as workplace courtesies that can be denied.