Pirate's Cove

Now, now, don’t misunderstand: there is nothing wrong with breastfeeding. There are tons of studies showing that breastfeeding and/or using breast milk is the best thing for babies. But, this is not really about breastfeeding: it’s about federal government interference in the economy, yet again

(Reuters) Under the Affordable Care Act, employers must provide time and space for new mothers to express milk for their babies until the child turns one year old.

“This is a terrific opportunity to show businesses that lactation is important and that women should be accorded the right to provide milk for their babies,” said Dr. Richard J. Schanler, director of neonatal services at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park.

This requirement has been “sort of on the books for a while,” Schanler told Reuters Health, but the ACA provision makes the rule concrete.

One has to wonder, why are women bringing young babies to the workplace in the first place? Here’s where it gets dicey

The law allows women to pump for a “reasonable amount of time,” as often as necessary, and requires employers to provide a clean, private space other than a bathroom for them to do so.

“It should be a room, a separate quiet place, not a bathroom, and let the mother express her milk and have a place to store it,” Schanler said.

There will certainly be companies that have the space to create this new lactation room. And many can certainly afford to spend a small amount to make it pleasant. Many already do provide a space. But, there are many which cannot. As an example, back in my days of working for AT&T wireless, there was really no extra space to have some sort of extra room in most retail stores, unless a section of the sales floor was taken away. This would apply to quite a few businesses.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from the break time law if it would be an “undue hardship,” causing difficulty or expense for the employer.

But the spirit of the law is to make this available for all working women, Schanler said, and it’s hard to imagine what difficulty or expense an employer would face.

Consider, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and tons of other corporations would not be allowed any exemption. What are they supposed to do? Every bit of the store is optimized. There are no places to build a separate room. And they get no waivers. Companies that may, and I stress “may”, get an exemption, are in the same boat. They have no space. It’s easy for Schanler to be unable to imagine difficulty and expense that would be incurred, but, then, he works in a giant hospital, which probably has a space already set aside. Will businesses have to do away with much of their floor space they currently have and when they look to build new locations?

A couple comments from the Yahoo article

• I guess things like this is why most jobs created are part time or temp jobs.
• “This is a terrific opportunity to show businesses that lactation is important and that women should be accorded the right to provide milk for their babies,” = One more cost for US companies and a reason to outsource more jobs to more company friendly locations
• I wonder how many women wont be hired now.
• This is going to be a huge boon to trial lawyers. Just wait and see!
• Single males should have their own room and paid time to ejaculate. It is proven to lower the chances of prostate cancer and also provides positive psychological properties. It would also likely reduce violence on the jobsite.
• How many more rules and hidden regulations are in this you have to pass  it in order to find out what it is in it bill?

This ACA rule is most likely simply more patronization of women by Democrats, much like how breast pumps are now required to be free under Ocare insurance. Strange, considering how hostile the Democrat party is to babies in the first place. In the Real World, legislation has unintended consequences, and they are not always the good kind. See the third comment.