PEORIA (25News Now) -Beginning Jan. 1, Illinois employers will be required to provide paid breaks for nursing mothers who earn hourly wages.

The “Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act” already protects nursing mothers on a salary, but now it will also cover nursing mothers paid by the hour.

In an amendment to the SB 0212, introduced by State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), an employer will be required to provide up to a half-hour paid break time to an employee each time they need to produce milk. This break time is covered until the baby is a year-old.

The only exception to this would be if the nursing mother would create an “undue hardship” as expressed in the Illinois Human Rights Act, which is defined as “prohibitively expensive or disruptive.” Examples would include if the employer were low staffed, it would impact operations of the business or financial resources of the employer.

State Rep. Sharon Chung (D-Bloomington) was one of more than 80 legislators in the House who supported the amendment, stating that the goal is to help all women in the state to overcome financial barriers.

“It shouldn’t have to matter if you’re a salaried employee or an hourly employee, and all of us, you know women have to make those tough decisions and figure out if we can be able to afford to raise a family,” said Chung.

Mothers who use this break time will be compensated at their regular rate and will not be required to use paid time off.

“For some folks, having those breaks be paid is really critical to them being able to actually take those breaks while maintaining their income in a moment where they need that income more than ever, they have a child,” said Emily Werth, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, who was a supporter of this bill.

According to Werth, those on hourly wages have some of the most need.

“We’ve always talked about the high cost of living and how people are always striving to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. A lot of the burden falls on women a lot of the time. They have to make the tough decision to come out of the workforce to possibly raise a family,” said Chung.

“Any sort of way to help women to be able to work, enter the workforce, and be able to raise their families,” she continued.

Included in the 27 House members who opposed the new law were Central Illinois Reps. Dennis Tipsword (R-Metamora), Bill Hauter (R-Morton), and Regan Deering (R-Decatur). Sen. Chris Balkema (R-Channahon) voted no on the Senate side.

25News tried to reach various associations opposed to the legislation, but no one returned messages in time for this report.

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