June 28, 2024

As of June 19, 2024, employers are required to provide “paid break time for thirty minutes, and permit an employee to use existing paid break time for a meal time for time in excess of thirty minutes” to allow the employee to express breast milk when an employee “reasonably” needs to do so.

Prior state law permitted unpaid breaks of at least twenty to thirty minutes at least once every three hours.  Now, that time has to be paid and the three hour requirement has been modified to reflect individualized needs based on what is “reasonable” for that employee.

What also should be of note is that the New York State Department of Labor’s model policy concerning this issue broadens the requirements by stating that the employer “must” provide this paid break time “as often as an employee reasonably needs to express breast milk.”  What is reasonable will be based upon the needs of the particular individual, which I gather, will be completely subjective.