Breastfeeding Discrimination: PUMP Act, PWFA, and Remedies

Breastfeeding discrimination at work happens when an employer denies you break time or a private space to pump, harasses you for pumping, forces you onto leave instead of accommodating you, or retaliates against you for asking. Three federal laws sit on top of each other to prohibit these actions: the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Which one you use decides where you file, how long you have, and what you can recover.

What Discrimination Actually Looks Like

The clearest violation is a flat denial. A manager tells you there is no time in the schedule for pump breaks, or pressures you to cut them short. Just as common is the bad-space problem: being pointed to a bathroom, a shared office without a lock, or a storage closet with no outlet. Under federal law, the space must be shielded from view, free from intrusion, and something other than a bathroom.¹

Harassment counts too. Coworker jokes about pumping, a supervisor who sighs every time you take a break, or being cut out of meetings scheduled during your pump times all fit the pattern. Retaliation is the most damaging form and often the hardest to prove: a sudden negative performance review, a rescinded promotion, or termination shortly after you asked for accommodations. Employers sometimes dress retaliation up as an unrelated performance concern, which is why a written record built in real time matters more than any single conversation.

Forced leave is its own category. If your employer’s response to your request is “take unpaid leave until you’re done nursing,” that is illegal when a different reasonable accommodation would have worked.²

Which Law Covers Your Situation

The PUMP Act

The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, signed in December 2022, amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and now covers nearly all employees, including teachers, nurses, and agricultural workers who were previously left out.³ For up to one year after your child’s birth, your employer must give you reasonable break time each time you need to pump and a private, non-bathroom space that is shielded from view and free from intrusion.¹

Pump breaks themselves do not have to be paid, but if you are not completely relieved from duty during the break, the time counts as hours worked and must be compensated. And if other employees get paid breaks, you get the same pay when you use one to pump.⁴

Employers with fewer than 50 employees can be excused only if they prove that compliance would cause significant difficulty or expense relative to their size and resources. Being small is not enough on its own; the employer carries the burden. A narrower set of transportation workers, including airline flight crews and some rail and motorcoach operators, faces different rules.⁵

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

The PWFA took effect in June 2023 and covers employers with 15 or more employees. It requires reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and the EEOC has confirmed that includes lactation.²

The PWFA reaches further than the PUMP Act in two useful ways. It has no fixed time limit, so your right to accommodation lasts as long as you have a lactation-related need that does not impose undue hardship on the employer. And under the EEOC’s implementing regulations, your employer cannot require a doctor’s note before granting pump breaks. Telling your employer you are nursing and need time and a place to pump is enough; there is no special form or magic language.⁶ The PWFA also bars retaliation against anyone who requests or uses an accommodation.

Title VII

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, prohibits sex discrimination at employers with 15 or more employees, and lactation is a pregnancy-related condition covered by it.⁷ Title VII is the right tool when the harm goes beyond break time or space and involves termination, demotion, pay cuts, a hostile environment, or being passed over for promotion because of your pumping schedule.

Document What Is Happening

A private, contemporaneous log is the backbone of any claim. For every incident, write down the date, time, location, the names and titles of everyone involved, any witnesses, and what was said as close to word-for-word as you can manage. “My manager said, ‘We can’t keep rearranging the schedule for this'” is worth far more than “My manager was unsupportive.”

Save emails, texts, Slack messages, and any written denials. Photograph an inadequate space; a picture of a bathroom stall or an unlocked closet says more than a paragraph of description. Note the physical effects of missed pump sessions, such as pain, engorgement, or a drop in supply, and any professional consequences, like missed meetings, lost assignments, or changed duties. Keep everything somewhere your employer cannot reach, whether a personal email account or a notebook at home.

Put the Request in Writing

Ask for accommodations in writing, even when the conversation has already happened in person. A short email works: “Per our conversation today, I’m confirming my request for a private space to pump and a 20-minute break every three hours.” That gives you a dated record your employer cannot later deny receiving. If your employer answers verbally, follow up with another email summarizing what they said. If a written lactation policy exists, get a copy. If none exists, note that too.

Where and When to File

The agency depends on the law.

PUMP Act: Department of Labor

The PUMP Act is enforced by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, not the EEOC. You can file a complaint with the WHD or bring a private lawsuit.³

One procedural quirk catches people: if you plan to sue over an inadequate pumping space, you must first tell your employer about the problem and give them 10 days to fix it before filing suit. That notice requirement does not apply if you were fired for requesting accommodations, if your employer has already made clear it will not provide a space, if you are filing with the Wage and Hour Division rather than in court, or if your claim is about break time rather than space.⁸

PWFA and Title VII: EEOC

Claims under the PWFA and Title VII go to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. You have 180 calendar days from the discriminatory act to file a charge, extended to 300 days if a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same type of discrimination. Most states have such an agency, so the 300-day window applies to most workers, but confirm before relying on it. Federal employees have only 45 days to contact their agency’s EEO counselor.⁹

You can start the process online, by phone, or in person at an EEOC field office. After you file a Charge of Discrimination, the EEOC notifies your employer, may attempt mediation, and investigates. If the agency finds evidence of discrimination, it may sue on your behalf. Otherwise it issues a Notice of Right to Sue, which lets you file your own case in federal court.¹⁰ For harassment, the deadline runs from the last incident, and the EEOC will still consider earlier incidents in its investigation.

What You Can Recover

Under the PUMP Act, remedies flow through the FLSA and include lost wages and liquidated damages, which can double the lost pay.¹

Under Title VII and the PWFA, you may be awarded back pay, reinstatement or placement in a job, and attorney’s fees. Where the discrimination was intentional, compensatory damages for out-of-pocket costs and emotional harm are available, and punitive damages for especially reckless conduct as well.¹¹ Combined compensatory and punitive damages are capped by employer size:

15 to 100 employees: $50,000
101 to 200 employees: $100,000
201 to 500 employees: $200,000
More than 500 employees: $300,000

The caps apply per complaining party and cover only compensatory and punitive damages. Back pay, attorney’s fees, and court costs sit outside the cap.¹² For claims against large employers, back pay and fees often make up most of the recovery.

A Note on Public Breastfeeding

These federal workplace laws do not govern nursing in public places like restaurants or parks. All 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico have separate laws allowing breastfeeding in public or private locations, with penalties varying by state. If you were told to leave a business or move to a restroom, your state law is the place to look.

Most employment attorneys offer free initial consultations for discrimination cases and work on contingency, meaning nothing upfront and a percentage of any recovery. Given how differently the PUMP Act, PWFA, and Title VII treat the same facts, having someone sort the claims early usually pays off.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 218d – Breastfeeding Accommodations in the Workplace
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 2000gg-1 – Nondiscrimination With Regard to Reasonable Accommodations Related to Pregnancy
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work
4
Department of Labor. PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 73B – Transportation Industry Exemptions from the FLSA Pump at Work Provisions
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time and Place to Pump at Work – Your Rights
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 US Code 2000e – Definitions
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 73A – Space Requirements for Employees to Pump at Work
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination
11
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Remedies for Employment Discrimination
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1981a – Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination in Employment