HB290 • 2026

Employment; employers required to provide location and break time for employees to express breast milk

Children Labor

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Givan
Last action: 2026-01-29
Official status: Read Second Time in House of Origin
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official text does not specify a one-year limit like federal law; it applies generally without an explicit end date in the provided excerpt.

The Nursing Mother's Act

This law requires every employer in Alabama to provide reasonable break time and a private location, other than a bathroom, for employees to express breast milk.

What This Bill Does

Requires employers to give reasonable unpaid break time or allow the use of existing paid breaks each day for expressing breast milk.
Mandates that employers make reasonable efforts to provide a room near the work area where an employee can be private, excluding bathrooms.
States that employers do not have to build new rooms specifically for this purpose.
Prohibits discrimination against employees who use these break times and locations.

Who It Names or Affects

Every employer in Alabama with one or more employees
State departments, agencies, authorities, offices, and political subdivisions
Employees who need to express breast milk

Terms To Know

Undue hardship: A situation where providing break time would create significant difficulty for the employer's operations.
Express breast milk: The act of removing breast milk from a mother's body to be stored and fed later.

Limits and Unknowns

Employers do not have to provide break time if it creates an undue hardship on their operations.
Employees must make reasonable efforts to minimize disruption to the workplace while using this time.
The law does not require employers to construct a new room solely for expressing breast milk.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

FKSXWC5-1

Health

Reported Out of Committee House of Origin

Plain English: This amendment creates the Nursing Mother's Act, which requires employers with more than 50 workers to give new mothers break time and a private place (not a bathroom) to pump breast milk for up to one year after their child is born.

Employers must provide reasonable unpaid breaks or allow employees to use existing paid breaks so they can express breast milk within the first year of having a baby.
Workplaces are required to offer a private room or area that is not a bathroom for mothers to pump, though employers do not have to build new rooms just for this purpose.
The law applies only to companies and government offices with more than 50 employees unless providing these breaks would cause serious trouble for the business operations.

This rule does not apply to small businesses or agencies that have 50 or fewer workers.
Employers do not need to provide break time if it creates an 'undue hardship' on their work, but the text does not explain exactly what counts as a hardship.

Bill History

2026-01-29 House
Read for the Second Time and placed on the Calendar
2026-01-28 House
Reported Out of Committee House of Origin
2026-01-20 House
Pending Committee Action in House of Origin
2026-01-20 House
Read for the first time and referred to the House Committee on Health

Official Summary Text

Employment; employers required to provide location and break time for employees to express breast milk

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

HB290 INTRODUCED
Page 0
HB290
QN8HR55-1
By Representative Givan
RFD: Health
First Read: 20-Jan-26
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QN8HR55-1 12/17/2025 GP (L)lg 2025-3702
Page 1
First Read: 20-Jan-26
SYNOPSIS:
Under existing federal law, certain employers
must provide a location and reasonable break time for
an employee to express breast milk for a period of one
year beginning on the date the circumstance relating to
the need to express breast milk arises.
This bill would create a state law requiring
every employer to provide a location and reasonable
break time for an employee to express breast milk.
A BILL
TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Relating to employment; to require an employer to
provide a location and reasonable break time for an employee
to express breast milk.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. This bill shall be known and cited as the
Nursing Mother's Act.
Section 2. (a) As used in this section, the term
"employer" means an individual or entity that employs one or
more employees, including all departments, agencies,
authorities, and any other office of this state and its
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HB290 INTRODUCED
Page 2
authorities, and any other office of this state and its
political subdivisions.
(b)(1) An employer shall provide an employee with
reasonable, unpaid break time or shall permit an employee to
use paid break time or meal time each day to express breast
milk.
(2) The break time, if possible, shall run concurrently
with any break time already provided to the employee.
(3) This section does not require an employer to
provide break time if doing so would create an undue hardship
on the operations of the employer.
(4) The employee shall make reasonable efforts to
minimize disruption to the employer's operations.
(c)(1) The employer shall make reasonable efforts to
provide a room or other location, other than a bathroom, in
close proximity to the work area, where an employee may
express breast milk in privacy.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be construed to
require an employer to build a room for the primary purpose of
expressing breast milk.
(d) An employer may not discriminate against an
employee for choosing to express breast milk in the workplace
in compliance with this section.
Section 3. This act shall become effective on October
1, 2026.
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