The PUMP Act Turns Two, But Most Employers Still Aren’t In Compliance

It’s been two years since the PUMP Act authorized employees to sue employers who violate their federal right to safe and protected lactation in the workplace. The PUMP Act—short for the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act—was signed by President Biden on December 29, 2022, and its enforcement rules took effect on April 28, 2023.

So how are employers doing with their legal obligations to support workers who are breastfeeding? A new report released today from Reproductive & Maternal Health Compass reveals that there’s still a long way to go. The majority of employers are not fully compliant with the PUMP Act’s requirements, and nearly one in five employers offers no lactation accommodation support.

Despite this disappointing data, the RMH Compass report highlights several positive findings about lactation accommodation. Employer noncompliance is typically not due to active resistance, but to confusion and structural barriers, which are more easily addressed. Data also shows that offering comprehensive lactation support can provide employers a competitive advantage.

What Is The PUMP Act?

The PUMP Act amended the federal Fair Labor Standards Act to expand workplace rights for nursing employees.

The law requires employers to provide a clean, private space for employees to express breast milk at work. The pumping location cannot be a bathroom, and it must be shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the lactation space must have a place for the employee to sit, and a flat surface other than the floor on which to place a pump. Employers must also provide a way for employees to safely store expressed milk while at work.

Under federal law, employers must allow employees to take reasonable break time as often as needed to express breast milk at work. These lactation accommodations must be provided for one year after an employee gives birth.

The PUMP Act also gives employees the right to sue employers that violate the law. Employees may file a lawsuit for violations of the Act’s break time and space requirements. Employees may also sue if an employer retaliates against them for requesting or exercising their lactation rights.

Employers of all sizes are covered by the PUMP Act. Employers with less than 50 employees may seek an exception if they prove that compliance would create an undue hardship by imposing significant difficulty or expense. Because the cost of providing lactation support is typically low, undue hardship exceptions are rare.

The PUMP Act covers nearly all employees, except certain workers in the transportation industry. Both salaried and non-exempt employees are covered. The PUMP Act extends lactation rights regardless of an employee’s role or number of hours worked, including to part-time and shift workers.

As the RMH Compass report highlights, “these provisions mark a significant shift in how workplace lactation support is defined: not as a wellness perk or discretionary benefit, but as a federally protected workplace right rooted in health equity and economic security.”

New Data On Employer Compliance With The PUMP Act

Employees have filed multiple lawsuits under the PUMP Act’s enforcement provision, including several class actions against nationwide retailers, manufacturers, and fast-food chains.

Despite these legal actions, employer compliance is still lagging, according to new research released today in an RMH Compass Trend Report. The report is based on nationwide data from 150 companies collected through the RMH Compass Assessment, a proprietary survey of employers’ reproductive and maternal health policies and practices.

RMH Compass found that only 46% of companies report full compliance with the PUMP Act. Full compliance requires having both a private lactation space and a written policy that allows for as many breaks as needed to express breast milk.

Compliance does not correlate with company size or with the percentage of women in an employer’s workforce. Companies meeting both requirements span diverse industries and workforce sizes, ranging from 500 to 90,000 employees. This finding suggests that compliance is feasible and scalable across a wide range of workplaces.

Many employers were in partial compliance with the PUMP Act, by having either a private lactation space or a written policy, but not both. About three in ten companies provide a lactation space without a formal policy to guide managers or employees on how to use it.

“Without a policy accompanied by clear communication and expectations, the accommodation may go underused—or worse, create confusion and discomfort for returning parents,” states the RMH Compass researchers. “Employees are left to self-advocate, and managers often don’t know how to support them.”

Among the companies surveyed, 17% reported offering no form of lactation accommodation. These companies spanned a wide range of sizes and industries.

Why Aren’t Companies Complying With The PUMP Act?

RMH Compass found that noncompliance with the PUMP Act typically is not due to active resistance or even carelessness by employers. Even well-intentioned employers are falling short of the PUMP Act requirements.

“In many cases, the absence of support stems from limited awareness, unclear guidance, or operational challenges such as managing accommodations across dispersed or shared worksites,” the RMH Compass researchers found. “Cultural assumptions also play a role, with some employers relying on informal, ad hoc solutions under the belief that few employees will use them.”

This finding suggests that education and increased employer resources could significantly improve PUMP Act compliance. This finding is consistent with the strong bipartisan Congressional backing of the PUMP Act, which was also supported by over 230 organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Business Benefits From Providing Lactation Support

Supporting workers who are breastfeeding offers employers a strong return on investment, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Business Group on Health.

Employer lactation support increases retention of women after the birth of a child. Up to 92% of breastfeeding employees return to work after childbirth when their employer provides lactation support, compared to a national average of only a 59% return rate, based on HRSA data. Lactation accommodation also reduces absenteeism and increases productivity, satisfaction, loyalty, and morale.

“Beyond all the reasons why complying with the law is a good practice, having comprehensive, written policies that articulate how your organization will support lactating workers coming back from parental leave is a huge driver of workplace culture,” said Flory Wilson, Founder and CEO of RMH Compass, via email. “Having those benefits in place and transparent to all workers ensures that a pregnant employee won’t feel unnecessary stress or confusion about how her needs will be supported when she returns to work.”

Employers with strong lactation support programs incur lower health care and insurance costs because breastfeeding improves both maternal and infant health. Lactation support also reduces leave taken by both mothers and fathers to care for a sick child.

“The investment in thoughtfully crafting a lactation accommodation strategy pays dividends through employee satisfaction and well-being,” said Wilson. “This matters so much in today’s work environment, especially to Millennials and Gen Z workers.”

PUMP Act Resources For Employers And Employees

Increasing resources are available for both employers and employees to help ensure compliance with the PUMP Act.

The U.S. Department of Labor provides guidance on how to comply with the PUMP Act. Employers should also be aware that many states impose additional lactation and breastfeeding accommodation requirements above those established by the federal law.

RMH Compass offers free model lactation policies for companies, and a guide for employees on questions to ask their employers about lactation support.

Employers may also use lactation support vendors, including the healthcare startup MilkMate, which offers turnkey lactation support solutions for a wide range of employers. MilkMate is innovating new lactation support systems, such as helping small or dispersed employers partner with landlords to create shared lactation spaces to serve multiple tenants.

Today’s two-year anniversary of the PUMP Act’s enforcement provisions is a good time for employers to use these resources to audit their lactation support policies, as part of a broader investment in reproductive health benefits.