HB49 • 2026

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

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: 2026-01-13
Official status: Pending Committee Action in House of Origin
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official text states this bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment in metadata, but also lists 'Pending Committee Action' as the last action; however, Section 3 explicitly sets an effective date of October 1, 2026.

HB49: Nursing Mother's Act

This bill creates a state law requiring employers to provide break time and a private location, other than a bathroom, for employees to express breast milk.

What This Bill Does

Requires every employer to provide reasonable break time each day for an employee to express breast milk.
Allows the break time to be unpaid or taken during existing paid breaks if possible.
Mandates that employers make reasonable efforts to offer a private room or location near the work area, excluding bathrooms.
States that employers do not need to build new rooms specifically for this purpose.
Prohibits discrimination against employees who use these break times and locations.

Who It Names or Affects

All individuals or entities that employ one or more workers in Alabama, including state departments, agencies, authorities, and political subdivisions.
Employees who need to express breast milk at work.

Terms To Know

Undue hardship: A situation where providing the break time would create significant difficulty for the employer's operations, allowing them not to provide it.
Express breast milk: The act of removing breast milk from a mother's body.

Limits and Unknowns

Employers do not have to provide break time if doing so would create 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 take effect until October 1, 2026.

Bill History

2026-01-13 House
Pending Committee Action in House of Origin
2026-01-13 House
Read for the first time and referred to the House Committee on Commerce and Small Business

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

HB49 INTRODUCED
Page 0
HB49
2JGAASK-1
By Representative Givan
RFD: Commerce and Small Business
First Read: 13-Jan-26
PFD: 05-Nov-25
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2JGAASK-1 09/04/2025 GP (L)lg 2025-2623
Page 1
PFD: 05-Nov-25
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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HB49 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.
(e) The employer shall be held harmless if the employer
makes reasonable efforts to comply with this subsection.
Section 3. This act shall become effective on October
1, 2026.
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