Pumping at Work Isn’t a “Perk”—It Fulfills the Right to Food
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
April 2, 2026
By Amanda Sarmientos, Yasmin Rizvi, and Meg Williams, Legal Interns, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law & Tamar Ezer, Acting Director, Human Rights Clinic, University of Miami School of Law
While on paper U.S. federal law protects breastfeeding, in practice these legal protections fall short as breastfeeding mothers still lack the support they need to feed their infants. Nearly one in five employers offers no lactation accommodations. Working mothers have reported a choice between (1) using demeaning, unsanitary spaces to express milk, (2) abandoning breastfeeding altogether, or (3) quitting their jobs. Such a choice is untenable. It violates basic human rights, including both the mother’s right to breastfeed and the infant’s right to food, and is contrary to U.S. law.
A woman’s choice to breastfeed should be her own, not her boss’s. When employers make pumping, or expressing milk for storage or to maintain supply, impossible, the ramifications go beyond mere inconvenience. This lack of support can undercut a child’s access to nutrition during a critical window of development.
Mothers’ Inability to Breastfeed Undermines Infants’ Right to Food
Lack of breastfeeding support directly impacts a child’s rights to food and health. International law recognizes that “adequate food must be accessible to everyone, including infants and young children.” Breastfeeding provides access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food, fulfilling the right to food and enabling healthy development. Ensuring mothers who choose to breastfeed are able to do so can also address infant food security. International human rights experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, have thus urged governments to do more “to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.”
Further, breastmilk has important health benefits. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for up to 6 months, as this can decrease the risk of health conditions for both infants and mothers. Breastfeeding can also help reduce health inequalities in low-income babies. This is why the World Health Organization (WHO) urges countries to invest in breastfeeding support as a health intervention. However, despite the science on the health implications of breastfeeding, many women still lack the necessary support to do so.
International Human Rights Standards Protect the Rights to Breastfeed
As United Nations human rights experts recognize, breastfeeding is a human rights issue for both the mother and the child. International law protects a mother’s right to breastfeed, if she chooses, in various treaties.
The International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“ICESCR”) calls for “the widest possible protection and assistance” to be given to families, which includes providing “special protection to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth.” While 173 countries have fully ratified ICESCR, the U.S. has signed but not yet ratified it.
The International Labor Organization (“ILO”) Maternity Protection Convention, No. 183, specifically recognizes a breastfeeding mother’s “right to one or more daily breaks or a daily reduction of work hours to breastfeed her child.” Moreover, it calls upon countries to count these breaks or reduction in hours as “working time” and remunerate accordingly. Currently, 45 countries have ratified this Convention to better balance workplace demands with family life. The U.S. is not among them.
Even though these treatises are not currently binding on the U.S., they provide an important normative framework that can help guide our national laws.
In Practice, U.S. Law Falls Short of Protecting the Right to Breastfeed
In the U.S., breastfeeding is commonly paused earlier than recommended because women need to return to work and/or lack lactation support in their workplace. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), eligible employees can only take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. This means that many women go back to work when their infant is just 3 months old.
From 3 to 5 months old, an infant needs to be breastfed or given baby formula 5 to 6 times per day. Meaning, new mothers who choose to breastfeed need to take multiple breaks during the workday. This schedule does not pause when a mother clocks in at the workplace. If a nursing parent cannot pump at work, milk supply can drop, which can lead to families being forced to substitute with formula earlier than planned—sometimes against medical advice.
The most direct workplace protection comes from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as strengthened by the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) explains that the FLSA requires employers to provide reasonable break time to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth, and a space to pump that is shielded from view, free from intrusion, and not a bathroom. The same DOL guidance notes that the PUMP Act expanded coverage to more workers, including agricultural workers.
However, there is no direct guidance on what constitutes a “reasonable” break time. The language is kept so broad that enforcement becomes difficult. Unlike the ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention, the DOL does not specify that a new mother is entitled to daily breaks and instead leaves it open to interpretation.
It has now been two years since the PUMP Act passed, and the majority of employers are still not fully compliant with its requirements. Enforcement and workplace culture matter. A right on paper can be undermined by retaliation, stigma, or supervisors who quietly discourage pumping by making the “private space” unusable or the “break time” unrealistic. These gaps in law and workplace reality shift the burden onto individual parents, often low-wage employees with the least flexibility to “make it work” at companies that do not provide lactation support.
The Human Rights Crisis in Plant Nurseries
These disparities between the law on the books and the law in practice are particularly stark for plant nursery workers. Florida is the top producer of indoor houseplants in the U.S., and most of the workers who grow and care for these plants are immigrant women from Latin America and the Caribbean. Many of these women are directly affected by the lack of proper breaks for breastfeeding or pumping, impacting their children’s access to nutrition and right to food.
In 2024, our partner, WeCount!, a nonprofit organization protecting the rights of Florida workers, published a report on the working conditions in South Florida plant nurseries. The report, titled The Human Cost of House Plants, found that 99% of women workers reported that they have never been allowed rest time and a private, safe place to breastfeed. Additionally, 1 in 3 workers reported that they are not allowed water breaks, with 62% describing the water offered by their employers as dirty and unsanitary. While new mothers work hard to grow beautiful houseplants, they are being denied the nutrients they need to help their children grow healthy as well.
How Can We Protect the Right to Breastfeed?
WeCount!’s Planting Justice campaign brings together plant nursery workers, consumers, and community allies to ensure respect for human rights in the plant industry. Planting Justice aims to eradicate discrimination against mothers and ensure they have the support they need to feed their infants.
Employers can support new mothers with a lactation program, which should include privacy to breastfeed, flexible breaks, lactation education, and a supportive environment overall. The result is a workplace with not only improved employee morale and lowered healthcare costs, but also reduced absenteeism, decreased turnover rates, and higher productivity and loyalty, leading to a potential 3:1 return on investment.
Families shouldn’t have to choose between a paycheck and a child’s nutrition. Lactation programs that provide reasonable time and a private, safe place to breastfeed or pump support working mothers and the right to food and health of their children. To help ensure women are given the workplace rights they deserve, endorse the Planting Justice campaign as they push for safe and decent working conditions for Florida agricultural workers.
