When Pump Breaks Have to Be Paid

When you owe pump breaks (and when they have to be paid)

Federal law gives any nursing employee the right to private pump breaks for the first year after birth, as often as they need them. The space can't be a bathroom — even a single-stall bathroom with a locked door doesn't count. Most employers with 50 or more workers nationwide are covered; smaller businesses can apply for an exception if compliance would create real expense or disruption, but it's not automatic, and several states cover smaller employers anyway.

If you're in New York, Minnesota, Illinois, or Georgia, the break may have to be paid at the employee's regular rate — you can't substitute PTO and you can't reduce salary. Washington joins that list on January 1, 2027, including paid travel time to the lactation space. Connecticut is narrower: the break is paid when it runs during an otherwise paid break. Everywhere else, the federal rule sets the floor: reasonable break time at no pay, unless the employee is still working during the break or the break is 20 minutes or less.

What to do this week

• Walk every space a pumping employee might use — no bathrooms, no security cameras.
• List which states your nursing employees actually work in (their home, not your address).
• In New York, Minnesota, Illinois, or Georgia, check whether pump breaks must be paid at the regular rate. Add Washington to that list for 2027.
• Write a one-page pump-break policy; give it to new hires and parents returning from leave.
• If anyone pumped in a bathroom or in camera view, check whether you owe back pay.

Where small employers get caught

• The retail manager pumping in a single-stall employee bathroom because there's no other private space.
• The teacher whose only quiet classroom has a security camera on the ceiling.
• The hospital nurse told to use the locker room because it has a chair.
• The New York employer still treating pump breaks as unpaid.

When in doubt, private and paid

A fast-food franchise paid $1.5 million in 2019 because a nursing employee was told to pump in a single-stall bathroom. Paying borderline pump breaks costs you a little; sending an employee to a bathroom or a camera-monitored office costs seven figures. When in doubt, the space is private and the time is paid.