Question about Maternity Leave (long, sorry!)

amd1982 · June 2012

Has anyone communicated with their HR dept about maternity benefits yet? My manager suggested I do so (even though it's early, since we're having twins, you can never be too prepared!) and I contacted our benefits specialist yesterday. I work for a small company, and we normally have great benefits so I'm a little confused by their maternity leave policy and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions about moving forward (speaking with director of HR, etc).

So she explained we have two programs - FMLA (family leave) and STD (short term disability). FMLA protects one's job for a 12 week period, the STD protects a certain % of your wages. In our benefits booklet, it says STD is up to 13 weeks. So, wouldn't you assume that you're able to take the normal 3 month maternity leave with 60% pay? Nope. HR person said "you only get paid for 6 weeks. your doctor will have to have a phone discussion with our outsourced STD company for reasons why you may need to stay out longer, but normally you'd only get paid for 6 weeks." Oh, and by the way they consider C-sections and twins completely "normal." Haha - obviously a company run by men!

Anyway, long story short, I'm having a hard time believing that this is "standard." Do all women who use their short term disability (who have normal births w/ no complications) only get paid 60% of wages for 6 weeks and then just go unpaid for the remaining 6 weeks? With two babies on the way, I'm really concerned about losing that much money....but I also do not want to rush back to work after having them.....very confused. Anyone with any experience/suggestions welcome!

DesiraeSunshine · June 2012

We don't even get paid maternity leave. We have to use our own acrued time if we want to get paid during the 12 week fmla.

amaksym05 · June 2012

I know this varies from state to state but I live and NJ and sounds like our companies almost have the same policy. I just went over everything with my benefits department and was amazed how much it sucked.

I was explained the standard STD is 6 weeks paid (technically only 5 are actually paid we have a week grace period! WTF!) for a vaginal and c-section birth. Now I was explained if there was complications they review it as a case by case and can have up to 9 weeks (8 weeks paid). Then everything else is FMLA which is up to 12 weeks unpaid.

So I couldn't imagine going back to work after only 6 weeks. So we decided to do the 6 weeks paid STD and 6 weeks unpaid FMLA. I just wanted to share my experience with maternity leave and I am so stressed about looking 6 weeks pay but unfortunaltly in this counrty and in most companies this is the standard.

I accidently read the maternity leave for our company in the UK and they get up to 52 weeks paid at 100%! Seriously, noty fair!

Good luck sweetie I can't imagine how much more stressful this is with twins coming. ((HUGS))

sekura · June 2012

I think what you have is pretty standard. This is why I tell women they should come work for Citi--13 weeks 100% paid! (And I had inferitility coverage too!) Citi takes amazing care of women.

srveatch · June 2012

Wow. I was planning on using shot term disability also. We actually had to purchase our own plan. It pays 60% like your plan. I need to check on the limit of time, I didn't even consider that... Now I'm scared!!! I have 4 weeks accrued time I plan on using first, but I definitely wanted a full 12 weeks out of work. Now it's looking like 10... Poop.

TJ1979 · June 2012

DesiraeSunshine:
We don't even get paid maternity leave. We have to use our own acrued time if we want to get paid during the 12 week fmla.

Me too. Luckily I have enough accrued vacation leave to get paid the full 12 weeks, but then I'll be out of vacation/sick leave and will have to take leave without pay for any days off the rest of the year.

ccam · June 2012

You also have to pay attention to the waiting period - some policies don't start paying you until so much time after delivery. STD is only there to pay you for the time you are considered unable to work and "disabled", which is usually 6-8 weeks depending on how you deliver. I would think the only way you would be paid for 13 weeks would be if you had some other medical condition and your Dr said you were unable to work past the 6-8 weeks.

I would suggest you speak to the STD company instead of your HR. I've found, at least where I work, that HR doesn't know all of the details about that kind of stuff. After speaking to the STD company, we opted out of that coverage and just saved that money. The policy wasn't worth it for us.

missjul61 · June 2012

Our STD is for 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 for csection with 60%ish pay. You are also allowed up to 4 weeks STD benefits prior to delivery if your Dr pulls you out of work for medical reasons. That's our limit for STD but in CA we have Baby Bonding/Family Leave for an additionl 6 weeks paid at 50%ish I think) and 6 weeks unpaid if you choose to take any of that time.

matthew_elizabeth · June 2012

My company has about the same policy as yours as well. I know that if I choose to go on leave before my EDD by choice (not medical related) I will be disqualified from STD, and not get any pay.

limpetfan · June 2012

You won't get the STD for 12 weeks because your doctor is unlikely to write you out of work for longer than 6-8 weeks. You can only collect the STD if a doctor is saying you're disabled - and medically speaking, giving birth disables you for about 6 weeks. Some doctors will write you out longer if it's a c-section, or a complicated birth, but most won't. Then it's up to your employer for how you'll be paid -- and yes, most women on maternity leave at some point go unpaid.

Also -- you're lucky you can get 60% of your pay. Here we have to pay in to STD to get 60% of our pay, otherwise we just get the state mandated amount, which is something like $170/week. We've had a "maternity leave" fund since we started trying to get pregnant back in the day, because we knew there would be at least 4 weeks where I would lose my entire salary.

Hope that helps! It's good that you went and found out your employer's policy early - now you have some time to plan!

Ruthie04 · June 2012

Mine is the same way. And, it is actually an improvement, as they didn't always give us STD for pregnancy related issues. It is my understanding that those extra few weeks of STD may actually come in handy before you deliver, as bed rest isn't super uncommon in a twin pregnancy. It shouldn't make much of a difference once the babies are here. FWIW, all of the executive officers at my company are women and two of them delivered twins! So, I think you company's practices are fairly standard.

drubie · June 2012

I don't get any STD...The way that maternity leave works at my university is that you get 6 weeks paid 100%, which you have to pay back within 3 years (by not accruing sick leave), and then you can use additional sick/vacation leave that you've accrued, up to 6 months off. I'll take 6 weeks of the "maternity" leave, and 8 weeks of my own accrued leave. I'll have maybe 5 days of sick/vacation when I go back to work, but my husband will still have quite a lot, since he won't be taking more than about 2 weeks of sick leave. He'll be the lucky duck to stay home when the baby's sick

psychmusetls · June 2012

In NJ teachers don't get disability so I had to buy my own Aflac plan. I get 6 weeks vaginal, 8 week c-section (also 60% of the salary of what i made when I signed up for the plan). paid FMLA also covers 60% but it's capped at 6 weeks and they already made me use some of it while i was on bed rest because I ran out of sick days.

My HR said that after the 6 weeks, many women get doctors notes to continue their disability period. Just because your delivery medical leave has ended doesn't mean that you aren't suffering from post-partum migraines, let's say. You can always extend medical leave but you must have a new diagnosis. If I have no medical reason to extend, I'd have to file for a child rearing leave and take it with no pay.

mdiblasi10 · June 2012

missjul61:
Our STD is for 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 for csection with 60%ish pay. You are also allowed up to 4 weeks STD benefits prior to delivery if your Dr pulls you out of work for medical reasons. That's our limit for STD but in CA we have Baby Bonding/Family Leave for an additionl 6 weeks paid at 50%ish I think) and 6 weeks unpaid if you choose to take any of that time.

It varies state by state. I am in California too. Our STD allows up to 4 weeks prior to the delivery, 6 weeks for vaginal (or 8 weeks for c-section) paid at approximately 55-60% of pay. Then the state will send you an application for Paid Family Leave for bonding with your baby for an additional 6 weeks of the same percentage of pay.

I am personally taking off a total of 5 months. I am working up until delivery and taking the Short Term Disability + Paid Family Leave + my 3 weeks of vacation + any necessary unpaid leave to get me to January 1st. Husbands are also allowed Paid Family Leave for up to 6 weeks to bond with their baby within the first year. My husband is taking part-time PFL after he is born and then another part of it around Christmas time.

Mrs.RockyM · June 2012

In my company you're eligible for 6 weeks of STD for a vaginal birth, and 8 for a c-section, and even so the first week of that is not paid - so you really only get 5 weeks at 60% or 7 weeks at 60%. the rest of the time I was out I took LWOP/vacation.

That's extremely standard, and why a lot of folks are only out for 6 or 8 weeks.

mswood1977 · June 2012

I would say that 99% of STD policies work like yours. Generally they pay 6-weeks for maternity leave, many will pay up to 8 weeks for a c-section. Some have 1 or 2 week waiting periods and some don't. Most STD policies pay 60% of your pay, though some like mine will pay 100% of your pay.

For mine we get 12 weeks Federal FMLA, an additional 10 weeks State FMLA (for a total of up to 22 weeks off for leave). We also have an STD policy that will pay up to 22 weeks of STD pay. This doesn't mean that we can take 22 weeks of STD for everything that qualifies for STD. It means that we can get up to 22 weeks of STD for medical leave if needed, however most conditions do not require 22 weeks of leave and they generally have a set amount of leave time that allow for various conditions, including a set amount of time for maternity leave.

My company's STD policy will only pay us for 6 weeks of maternity leave (no waiting period). My policy does not allow for 8 weeks for a c-section.

jillychris · June 2012

I can take 6-8 weeks depending on the type of delivery; anything up to that is up to my dr's request. No paid time off, but we can use our accured sick leave to get paid. Once that is up it's all unpaid.

tst1998 · June 2012

It varies from state to state. In Washington, companies aren't required to provide any short term disability. They are only required to provide FMLA (3 months unpaid) if you have worked at a company for more than a year, and the company has more than 50 employees. Anything else you get is bonus.

thebeadinglady · June 2012

I am jealous of those of you that have short waiting periods for your STD to kick in. Ours is 27 consecutive days. So basically I will get 4 weeks unpaid STD (luckily I will have enough sick/vacation/personal time to cover that period) Then I will only really get paid for two weeks of my STD, and it is also at 60%. I don't know what I will do for the rest of the year with all of my sick time used up. I will have to go 11 months with out any real time off. It will suck.

Whales124 · June 2012

I'm a teacher so I know things are a little different but here's what we have to do. We can take 6 wks for vaginal birth 8 wks for c-section and use our sick days in order to get paid. Anything more than that requires a doctors note to be able to access your sick days. So in other words even if you have them, you can't use them unless you have a note. If you want to take more time it is unpaid. After 12 weeks (if you are taking an unpaid leave) you lose your health insurance coverage unless you want to pay out of pocket for it.

DeputiesWife · June 2012

thats a good question and I will have to dig further. I assumed that my STD covered 12 weeks.

I have FMLA also -- and will be using the 12 weeks to hold a job here. I do know that I will be using my sick leave and vacation time as well and those weeks of sick/vacation go a long with FMLA. In otherwords I get 12 weeks total. Not 12 weeks plus sick and vacation time.

I signed up for STD a while back and I do know it is 60% of your salary.

4legsRbest · June 2012

Sounds like that is pretty average. Here is what I have.

week 1- I use PTO/Vacation (this is a holding time before my STD kicks in and is required) at 100% pay

weeks 2-7 STD pays me at 90% of my salary. It will be weeks 2-9 if I have a c-section so 8 weeks for a c-section

weeks 8-16 - In Tennessee we gets 16 weeks of FMLA, not the standard 12, so I have to take PTO/vacay time if I want to get paid, if not I get leave but no pay.

Luckily I will have 120 hours of PTO saved up but need to save 40 for days LO may be sick so I will be taking a total of 10 weeks off paid and 2 unpaid. In those 2 unpaid we will be transisitioning into daycare so maybe on really 3 days no pay for 2 weeks.

JodiAriel · June 2012

I get paid $0 except the AFLAC that I have been paying into and that is less than half my salary for 6-8 weeks. I work for a small company (under 50 employees) so I am not even eligible for FMLA and my company does not offer STD. I am beyond scared how I am going to make this work especially if I have to go on bedrest.

cutebride73 · June 2012

I talked to both my employers HR person and the short term disability company. I have STD through Aflac (which I pay for, my work doesn't have it's own STD). While my STD would be partial pay for 6 months (for injury or illness), for child birth it is 6 weeks (only 5 actually paid) for a vag birth and 8 weeks (only 7 paid) for a c-sec. There is a "waiting" week, so that's why it pays for 5/7 weeks, not 6/8. My work's policy is that I can use any and all sick/personal time as paid time off. The STD runs con-currently - so I will get my paid time off and the STD money at the same time.

I have saved about 30 days paid time off and then the 12 weeks of FML (unpaid) start. Some companies have FML and paid time off start at the same time, but my employer lets you use the paid time first and then start FML. So technically that would allow me to be off longer (18 weeks).

I am also pregnant with twins and that makes no difference. I thought it might as well, but it doesn't. The only thing that would be a difference was if I was put on bedrest prior to their birth - I could get paid from the regular STD portion of Aflac and then once the babies are born it would be the maternity benefit. I would just have to fill out seperate paperwork. Nothing would change with what my work allows though. Although, technically in addition to the FML I am elgible to take up to 4 semesters off and have my job held, we can't afford that - so it will just be my paid time off and then whatever unpaid FML I end up using. I plan to be written out of work at about 36 weeks (or sooner if needed) - so I will be off for about 16 weeks total - at least 14 or so with the babies.

Question about Maternity Leave (long, sorry!)

Re: Question about Maternity Leave (long, sorry!)

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