Key differences between city and state law, and other takeaways for employers
New York City employers will be required to physically and electronically post a copy of their written lactation accommodation policy beginning May 8, 2025. This includes a requirement to post the policy in an area accessible to employees and electronically on the employer's intranet, if one exists. This posting obligation is in addition to employers' obligation to distribute a written lactation policy to employees upon hire.
This amendment aligns the city law with New York state law (see our prior advisory), which provides employees 30 minutes of paid break time to express milk, bolstering the state's requirement to provide unpaid lactation breaks. Following this amendment, both the state and city law will require all employers to provide 30 minutes of paid break time and allow employees to use other paid break or meal time for time in excess of 30 minutes.
The state and city laws are nearly identical, but while the state law applies to all employers regardless of size, the city law applies only to employers with four or more employees. Additionally, whereas state law requires an employer to make "reasonable efforts" to provide a suitable location for expressing milk, city employers are specifically required to engage in a cooperative dialogue to determine what, if any, accommodations may be available, and to provide the employee with a written notice regarding whether any accommodation was ultimately granted or denied.
Takeaways
- New York City employers should carefully review and revise their current break policies and practices to ensure compliance with this amendment.
- New York City employers should train managers on the amended law so that they may be able to handle requests by employees for lactation breaks.
- New York City employers should update their physical and electronic postings to ensure lactation room policies are included.
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