What Is the PUMP Act? Coverage, Break Time, and Exemptions

The PUMP Act is a federal law that requires most employers to give nursing employees reasonable break time and a private space, other than a bathroom, to express breast milk for up to one year after their child’s birth.¹ Its full name is the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act. It was signed on December 29, 2022, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, and it works by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, so its reach extends across nearly every industry.²

Who Is Covered

If you qualify for minimum wage or overtime protections under the FLSA, you have the right to break time and a private space for pumping at work.² That covers most of the U.S. workforce, including salaried employees, part-time workers, agricultural workers, home care aides, and managers. Coverage applies from the moment you return to work and continues for one year after your child’s birth.¹

There is no waiting period, no minimum tenure, and no requirement that you file paperwork before your employer’s obligation kicks in. If you are back at work and nursing, the law applies.

Break Time

Your employer must give you a reasonable break each time you need to pump during the workday.¹ The statute does not set a specific number of minutes or a fixed schedule, because pumping needs differ. What counts as reasonable depends on your situation, including how far you have to walk to the pumping space, how long it takes to set up and clean your equipment, and how often you need to pump.³

Your employer cannot deny you a needed break. If you need to pump every two to three hours, that schedule must be accommodated. The one-year clock runs from the date of your child’s birth, not from when you return to work.

The Private Space

A bathroom is never an acceptable location, even a private single-stall restroom. The statute is explicit: the space must be somewhere other than a bathroom, shielded from view, and free from intrusion by coworkers or the public.¹ That means a door that locks or reliable signage that keeps people from walking in. A conference room with a glass wall does not qualify.

Department of Labor guidance goes further on what makes a space functional. The room must include a place to sit and a flat surface, other than the floor, for a breast pump. Access to an electrical outlet and a nearby sink for handwashing and cleaning pump parts are treated as best practices rather than hard requirements.⁴ Employers cannot dodge the requirement by claiming their building layout doesn’t support it. Converting a storage room or setting up a temporary partition may be necessary.

Is Pumping Time Paid?

Whether you get paid for pumping time depends on whether you are completely off duty during the break. If your employer fully relieves you of all work responsibilities while you pump, the break is unpaid under federal law.¹ But if you do any work during that time, the entire break becomes compensable. Answering a single work email, monitoring a phone line, or grading papers while pumping means the employer owes you your regular rate for the full break.³

One detail catches people off guard. If your employer already gives paid rest breaks to all employees, you are entitled to use those breaks for pumping and must be paid on the same terms as everyone else.³ If the company offers two paid 15-minute breaks per shift, you can use both for pumping and still receive your regular pay. You may need additional unpaid time beyond those breaks, but the paid ones cannot be taken away because you are using them to pump.

Employer Exemptions

The law carves out narrow exemptions for small businesses and specific transportation workers. The bar for claiming an exemption is deliberately high.

Small Businesses

Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the break time and space requirements if they can prove that compliance would create an undue hardship.¹ The employer bears the burden of proof and must show that accommodating a specific employee’s pumping needs would cause significant difficulty or expense given the business’s size, financial resources, and structure.⁵ It is evaluated case by case. A profitable 40-person company cannot simply declare hardship because it has fewer than 50 workers.

Transportation Workers

Airline crewmembers are fully exempt. The statute excludes any crewmember of an air carrier.¹

Rail carrier employees and motorcoach operators became covered on December 29, 2025, but their coverage comes with conditional exemptions.² A rail carrier can avoid providing breaks to train crew or right-of-way maintenance workers if compliance would require significant expense, such as adding extra crew to cover a break, or create unsafe conditions.¹ Motorcoach operators face a similar standard: the exemption applies if compliance would cause significant expense or endanger employees or passengers. These are assessed case by case, so a blanket policy refusing all accommodations would not hold up.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, reassign you, or take any other adverse action against you for exercising your pumping rights, filing a complaint, or cooperating with an investigation.⁶ Even asking questions about your pumping rights counts as protected activity that an employer cannot punish.⁷

Retaliation can be subtle. Sending you home without pay because you tried to take a pumping break is an example the Department of Labor has flagged as illegal.⁷ So is a negative performance review that coincidentally follows your first complaint about the pumping space. Any action that would discourage a reasonable employee from raising a concern qualifies.

How to Enforce Your Rights

You have two main paths if your employer violates the law: filing a complaint with the Department of Labor, or pursuing a private lawsuit.

The Wage and Hour Division investigates PUMP Act violations. You can file a complaint online, by phone at 1-866-487-9243, or in person at a regional office. There is no fee, and the agency handles the investigation, which typically involves reviewing company policies and interviewing the employer. If the investigation confirms a violation, the DOL can pursue remedies including back pay for lost wages.⁸

You can also sue your employer directly. Available remedies in a private lawsuit can include back pay, front pay, liquidated damages, and attorney fees. Before filing a lawsuit over an inadequate pumping space, you must notify your employer of the problem at least 10 days in advance to give them a chance to fix it. This notice requirement applies specifically to space violations. It does not apply to suits over denied break time or retaliation.

State Laws and the PWFA

The PUMP Act sets a federal floor, not a ceiling. If your state or city has a lactation accommodation law that provides stronger protections, those laws still apply and your employer must follow whichever standard is more protective.³ Some states extend protections beyond one year, require paid pumping breaks, or impose more detailed space requirements. Check your state labor agency’s website.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in June 2023, provides a separate layer of protection. The PWFA requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, and lactation qualifies. Where the PUMP Act covers break time and space for the first year, the PWFA can extend accommodations beyond that timeframe if lactation-related needs persist. The PWFA also covers employers with 15 to 49 workers who might otherwise claim the PUMP Act’s small-business exemption. An employer cannot force you to take leave when a different accommodation, such as a flexible break schedule, would let you keep working.⁹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 218d – Breastfeeding Accommodations in the Workplace
2
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Protections to Pump at Work
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 73 – FLSA Protections for Employees to Pump Breast Milk at Work
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 73A – Space Requirements for Employees to Pump Breast Milk at Work
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Frequently Asked Questions – Pumping Breast Milk at Work
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time and Place to Pump at Work – Your Rights
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Retaliation
8
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act