Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act – Are you in compliance?

The Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act (“Act”) requires Illinois employers with more than five  employees (exclusive of the employer’s parent, spouse, or child or other members of the employer’s immediate family) to comply with certain requirements for nursing mothers. They include:

1. Private place. Make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location, near the work area, (other than a toilet stall), where the employee can express breast milk in privacy.
2. Break times. The employer must provide “reasonable break time” to an employee who needs to express milk for one year after the child’s birth. Such break time may run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee.
3. Amendment to the Act. Effective January 1, 2026, the Act was amended to provide that the employer shall “compensate the employee during the break time at the employee’s regular rate of compensation, and shall not require the employee to use paid leave during the break time or reduce the employee’s compensation during the break time in any other manner”.

Employers who are required to comply with the Act should ensure that they have an appropriate location for expressing breast milk and that employees are compensated during such break time. If your current timekeeping practices provide for a reduction in time for nursing mothers, that will have to be revised.

References: 820 ILCS 260/et seq. SB0212