New York recently passed a law, effective August 15, 2007, requiring all employers to permit nursing mothers to express breast milk in the workplace. Thirteen other states have enacted similar laws (California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Washington). 

The New York law requires employees to provide reasonable unpaid break time, or to permit employees to use paid break time or meal time, to express breast milk. Employers are required to make reasonable efforts to provide a private room or other location, in close proximity to the work area, to express milk. These protections apply for up to three years following the birth of a child.

This new law only addresses the expression of breast milk, and not the right to breastfeed a baby in the workplace, however, employers should be aware of another New York law dealing with breastfeeding. Civil Rights Law Section 79-e protects the right of a nursing mother to breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private.