MA Law - Right To Breast-Feed in Public
MGL Chapter 111, Section 221. (a) A mother may breastfeed her child in any public place or
establishment or place which is open to and accepts or solicits the patronage of
the general public and where the mother and her child may otherwise lawfully be
present. (Full law)
IRS ruling - Allows Mothers Tax Break on Breast-Feeding Costs
An IRS ruling, which will affect expenses incurred starting in 2010, will allow mothers to use pretax money from their flexible spending accounts to cover the cost of breast pumps and other supplies. Those without flexible spending accounts may deduct breast-feeding costs if their total unreimbursed medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of their adjusted gross income and they itemize.
“Break Time for Nursing Mothers" Law
The “Break Time for Nursing Mothers" Law provision of the Affordable Care Act took effect when the ACA was signed into law on March 23, 2010.
Employers are required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” Employers are also required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
The law does not preempt state laws that provide greater protections to employees (for example, providing compensated break time, providing break time for exempt employees, or providing break time beyond 1 year after the child’s birth).
Time and Location of Breaks
Employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary.
A bathroom, even if private, is not a permissible location under the Act. The location provided must be functional as a space for expressing breast milk. If the space is not dedicated to the nursing mother’s use, it must be available when needed in order to meet the statutory requirement. A space temporarily created or converted into a space for expressing milk or made available when needed by the nursing mother is sufficient provided that the space is shielded from view, and free from any intrusion from co-workers and the public.
Coverage and Compensation
Only non-exempt employees are covered under this law.
Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the FLSA break time requirement if compliance with the provision would impose an undue hardship. Whether compliance would be an undue hardship is determined by looking at the difficulty or expense of compliance for a specific employer in comparison to the size, financial resources, nature, and structure of the employer’s business. All employees who work for the covered employer, regardless of work site, are counted when determining whether this exemption may apply.
Employers are not required to compensate nursing mothers for breaks taken under this provision. However, where employers already provide compensated breaks, an employee who uses that break time to express milk must be compensated in the same way that other employees are compensated for break time. In addition, the employee must be completely relieved from duty or else the time must be compensated as work time.
For additional information: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov and/or call the DOL toll-free information and helpline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone, 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).
-Adapted from “Breast-Feeding Supplies Win Tax Breaks From I.R.S., by David Kocieniewski, The New York Times, published: February 10, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/11breast.html, retrieved 2/18/11 and “Fact Sheet #73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the FLSA” (Revised December 2010), U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD), http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs73.htm, retrieved 2/14/11. Source: “You want me to pump where?”, e-mail, MomsRising.org, February 13, 2011.
