A New Guide to Breastfeeding in the Workplace

Connecticut employment law blogger Daniel Schwartz writes about the state’s new Guide to Breastfeeding in the Workplace. The document, a joint effort of the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and the Public Health and Labor departments, explains the state and federal breastfeeding in the workplace laws and how they interact.

The federal and state laws overall are similar, but they also have what appear to be significant differences. The state law requires employers to make a reasonable effort to accommodate an employee who wishes to breastfeed or express milk at work, while the federal law only seems to address expressing milk (to give to a baby later). Federal law also guarantees a break for most employees (those covered by federal minimum wage and overtime law) to breastfeed or express milk, something not required under state law (only that an employee may use meal or break time). So in this regard the federal law is more generous to the employee.

Schwartz writes that while the guide is useful for employers and employees, it also can be confusing when it doesn’t clearly distinguish between what businesses need to do to accommodate breast-feeding mothers who are customers and what businesses need to do to accommodate their workers.