Colorado Nursing Mother Accommodation Laws

Federal Protections Under the PUMP Act

At the federal level, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act), which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, gives most employees the right to reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space to express breast milk.^[1] Congress passed the PUMP Act as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and it took effect on December 29, 2022. The protection lasts for up to one year after the child’s birth, and it applies to nearly every employer covered by the FLSA, regardless of size.

There is a narrow exception. An employer with fewer than 50 employees can avoid the break time and space requirements only by proving that compliance would create a significant difficulty or expense given the size, finances, and structure of the business, and that showing is evaluated case by case rather than assumed. Air carrier crewmembers, meaning employees who perform duty on an aircraft during flight, are exempt from these provisions entirely, though other airline employees are fully covered. Rail carrier and motorcoach employees were exempt only through December 29, 2025; since that date, most are covered as well, subject to a narrow, case-by-case exception tied to significant expense or safety.

An employer cannot retaliate against an employee for requesting an accommodation, filing a complaint, or cooperating with an investigation. An employee whose rights are violated can seek remedies that include reinstatement, back pay with an equal amount in liquidated damages, and compensatory or punitive damages in appropriate cases.

Colorado’s Broader Protections for Nursing Mothers

Colorado’s own law, the Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act (WANMA), C.R.S. §§ 8-13.5-101 to 8-13.5-104, goes further than the federal PUMP Act in two ways:

• It covers every employer in the state with one or more employees, with no small-employer exception like the one under federal law.^[2]
• It protects break time and private space for up to two years after the child’s birth, twice the one-year period under federal law.

Colorado employees may also have protections against discrimination or retaliation connected to lactation, pregnancy, childbirth, or requesting a legally protected workplace accommodation, arising under authority separate from WANMA’s accommodation requirements.^[3]

Colorado ties compliance to the same reasonable-efforts standard described above: an employer that makes reasonable efforts to accommodate a nursing employee is considered to meet the law’s requirements. Because federal law does not override a state law that offers greater protection, Colorado’s longer time window and broader employer coverage generally control for employees working in Colorado.

Before You Can Sue Under Colorado Law

Colorado requires nonbinding mediation between the employee and the employer before a WANMA lawsuit can proceed.^[4] That step applies to a private lawsuit specifically, not to a complaint filed with a state or federal agency. An employer that goes beyond what WANMA itself addresses, for example by disciplining or demoting an employee for expressing milk, may also face a separate claim for unlawful workplace discrimination under Colorado law. That is a distinct legal theory from a WANMA accommodation claim, with its own filing deadline discussed below.

A Colorado Example

A 2023 case out of Denver illustrates how these disputes actually play out. In 2019, pilots and flight attendants at Frontier Airlines filed separate lawsuits alleging the airline failed to provide adequate accommodations for pregnancy and breastfeeding. The flight attendants’ case settled in 2022; the pilots’ case settled in December 2023, when the EEOC announced a settlement in which Frontier agreed to policy changes addressing the needs of pregnant and lactating pilots, without admitting liability.^[5]

Filing Deadlines for Nursing Mother Accommodation Claims in Colorado

Colorado’s Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act does not set its own filing deadline. Where a specific Colorado statute does not provide one, the state’s general two-year limitations period for statutory claims applies, so a WANMA lawsuit ordinarily must be filed within two years of the violation.^[6]

A claim under the federal PUMP Act follows the Fair Labor Standards Act’s own limitations period: two years from the violation, extending to three years if the violation was willful.^[7]

If the same conduct also supports a discrimination claim under Colorado law rather than an accommodation claim under WANMA, a different and shorter deadline applies, the 300-day EEOC and Colorado Civil Rights Division filing window described on our discrimination page. Missing any of these windows can permanently bar recovery, which is why early legal review matters.

What to Do If Your Employer Denies Accommodation or Retaliates Against You

An employer that punishes an employee for requesting or using a lactation accommodation, through discipline, a schedule change, a demotion, or termination, may be exposed to a retaliation claim in addition to violating the accommodation laws above. The steps below apply whether the issue is a denied accommodation, retaliation for requesting one, or both.

1. Put your request in writing, or follow up any verbal request with an email, so there is a clear record of what you asked for and when.
2. Document what happens next: whether break time was denied, delayed, or discouraged; whether the space offered was a bathroom or otherwise inadequate; and any comments or discipline connected to the request.
3. Decide which path fits your situation: a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, a private lawsuit, or, if the conduct also involves discrimination, a charge with the Colorado Civil Rights Division or the EEOC.
4. If you plan to file a private lawsuit over a denied space specifically, know that federal law generally requires you to notify your employer of the problem and give them 10 days to fix it before you can sue over that particular issue. That notice-and-cure step does not apply to a break-time denial, to a Wage and Hour Division complaint, to a case where the employee was discharged for requesting the accommodation, or where the employer has already indicated it has no intention of providing the space.
5. Under Colorado law, know that nonbinding mediation with your employer is a required step before a WANMA lawsuit can proceed, though it is not required before filing an agency complaint.
6. Talk to an employment attorney before the deadlines above pass, since the right path, and which law applies, depends on the specific facts of your situation.

How Elkus & Sisson Can Help

Determining which law applies, which deadline governs, and which process fits your situation takes a careful look at the specific facts. Our Colorado employment law attorneys evaluate nursing mother accommodation denials and retaliation claims under both the PUMP Act and Colorado’s Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act, identify whether a related discrimination claim exists, and guide clients through the mediation, administrative, or litigation process that fits their circumstances.