Employers of Five or More Employees Must Give Nursing Breaks

Do you know that Illinois has a law on the books that requires employers of five or more employees to provide breaks to nursing mothers to express milk? The law was recently amended to quantify the break time and further ease the ability of new mothers to simultaneously work and nurse, as detailed below.

Covered employers (5 or more employees, exclusive of employer’s immediate family) must now give 30 minutes of paid break to an employee who needs to express breast milk for her nursing infant child, each time the employee has the need to express milk, for one year after the birth. The break time does not need to run concurrently with any break time already provided, and an employer is prohibited from reducing an employee’s compensation for time used for expressing milk or nursing a baby. The law also requires covered employers to make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, other than a toilet stall, where an employee can express her milk in privacy.