State Legislation

The State of Hawaii is one of the 43 States to have laws specifically allowing women to breastfeed in any public or private location and one of the 24 States to have laws related to breastfeeding in the workplace.

Hawaii Revised Statute §367.3 (1999) requires the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission to collect, assemble, and publish data concerning instances of discrimination involving breastfeeding or expressing breast milk in the workplace. The law prohibits employers to forbid an employee from expressing breast milk during any meal period or other break period. (HB266 CD1)

Hawaii Revised Statute §378.2 (1999) provides that it is unlawful discriminatory practice for any employer or labor organization to refuse to hire or employ, to bar or discharge from employment, or withhold pay, demote or penalize a lactating employee because an employee breastfeeds or expresses milk at the workplace. (HB 2774)

Hawaii Revised Statute §489.21 and §489.22. §489.21 provide that it is a discriminatory practice to deny, or attempt to deny, the full and equal emjoyment of the goods, services, facilites, priviledges, advantages, and accommodation of a place of public accommodations to a woman because she is breastfeeding a child. §489.22 provides that a person injured by an unlawful discriminatory practice may bring a private cause of action and provides appropriate remedies. §489.23 exempts the provisions dealing with breastfeeding from the purview of the civil rights commission.

Federal Legislation

The U.S. Department of Labor is the regulatory agency under which the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act, §4207 the new health care reform law, provides nursing women the right to unpaid time and a place to pump breast milk at work. The law went into effect March 2010.