On August 21, 2018 the State of Illinois amended the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act to prohibit an employer from reducing an employee’s compensation for breaks for nursing mothers. Originally, employers were required to provide “reasonable unpaid break time each day” to express milk, which “must, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee.” That meant that if nursing mothers needed additional time to express milk beyond existing breaks, then that time would be unpaid.
Now, all break time for the purpose of expressing breast milk must be paid. Also, the requirement that a nursing break “must” run concurrently with other break time has turned into a “may run concurrently” – meaning, we think – that employees will have more say into when such breaks take place.
Read entire article here.