Parents continue to face challenges as they fight for support and protections in the workplace. The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act is set to help this population take a major step forward.
The bill, which garnered bipartisan support and has just been advanced to the Senate, will require all employers to provide time and a private, non-bathroom space for all lactating parents — employers with less than 50 employees may apply for an undue hardship exemption. While this requirement was previously sanctioned by the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2010, these protections only extended to those paid by the hour; this new bill will also apply to those given annual salaries, a group of nine million people that include airline employees, teachers and nurses.
“Our main goal with the PUMP Act is to close the gap and make sure every lactating parent is covered, regardless of their job,” says Cheryl Lebedevitch, senior advocacy and communications manager at the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. “A teacher, who is taking care of a whole generation, should be able to take care and feed their own infant.”
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The PUMP Act will also protect surrogates, those who adopt and wish to induce lactation and those who experience stillbirth but want to donate their milk. The bill would also allow formerly exempt employees to seek back pay and reinstatement if they had been fired due to requesting time to pump milk at work.
Amy VanHaren, CEO and founder of breastfeeding platform pumpspotting, believes this inclusivity will be vital to not only employees, but employers who hope to retain their working parents.
“This is an opportunity for employers to reflect on their current lactation and breastfeeding support, culture and policies, and then think about what they could be doing better, whether employees are in the office or at home,” VanHaren says. “The journey in breastfeeding or chestfeeding looks very different for every parent and all forms of parents need to be supported.”
Putting this law into action is not as complicated as it may seem, explains Amelia Psmythe Seger, deputy director at the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. For example, a lactating space only has to meet five rules: it cannot be a bathroom, it must have a chair and flat surface, and it must be shielded from view, free of intrusion and available whenever a parent needs to express milk.
“These are sensible provisions that recognize that where you have a human body, you have needs,” says Seger. “So what we’re looking for our lactating parents is a threshold of dignity.”
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To go above and beyond, employers could provide a cooler or refrigerator to store milk, a sink, comfortable seats and even a hospital-level pump so parents do not have to lug their equipment around. Most importantly, employers can ensure their lactation room is centrally located so that it’s near the parent’s worksite, says Lebedevitch.
“This is a simple, low-cost way to make it easier for families and women to return to the workforce,” she says. “With a little bit of effort from an employer, it can truly make a world of difference for that parent.”
However, if employers still fail to comply, the PUMP Act states that they will have 10 days’ notice before the employee can bring the issue to court and file a lawsuit. While small businesses may be especially concerned about compliance, pumpspotting has created a platform aimed at helping these employers create lactation rooms. In addition, pumpspotting will provide their employees with an app that offers lactation consultants, an online community of parents and a global map of places to pump, explains VanHaren.
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Still, the PUMP Act has not been passed yet, leaving millions of workers without rights and protections in their workplace. Lebedevitch urges people to contact their senators and put the PUMP Act at the forefront of politicians’ minds.
“Breastfeeding is truly bipartisan and we are all committed to supporting babies,” she says. “And I think that is truly remarkable because we don’t see bipartisan, unanimous support happen every day.”
