New Jersey Babies
lilweenie
member
Options
Maternity Leave
lilweenie
member
Hey everyone! In new to this board, as I usually post in the July board. I am a first time mother, and I was wondering if anyone who has gone through this before can explain maternity leave benefits to me. I met with my HR department lady at my job and everything was so confusing to me! I understand I will be able to use FMLA, FLA, and NJ Disability. Under these laws I can take up to 4 week before my due date, then 12 weeks after my due date. Is the 4 weeks before my due date paid? Im pretty sure the 12 weeks after would be. I am so confused! I'll probably request to meet with the HR lady again soon, but in the mean time I was looking for some input from someone who has recently gone through this. Thanks!
Re: Maternity Leave
There are a lot of variations depending upon your employer, their company size, etc. I received the following:
(Up to) 4 weeks paid disability before my due date (I went out 2 weeks before my due date and wound up delivering a week late so I received disability payments for three weeks prior to delivering)
6 weeks disability after vaginal delivery OR 8 weeks disability after C-section delivery
Following the 6 or 8 weeks (I got 6 wks for vaginal) I received an additional 12 weeks under FMLA. 6 of those 12 weeks were paid at the same rate as my disability pay.
I was out of work for a total of 20 weeks. I cannot stress enough that this may not be what you get so do not hesitate to ask HR to clarify it as many times as you need. Sometimes you are required to use all of your sick or vacation time before disability kicks in, etc. so every individual/employer situation is not the same and yours may not be the same as mine.
You will receive a debit card to a Bank of America account which your disability payments will be directly deposited to. It takes a few weeks to kick in and I could never quite figure out the system of how/when I got paid, it seemed to come in spurts. It takes a few weeks to begin coming so it is good to plan ahead for that inbetween time of getting paid from work and disability kicking in. Also keep in mind that disability is about 2/3 of your weekly pay rate with a max of (I think) $590. So if you make $300. per week your disability will not be $300 but instead only 2/3 of that. And on the flip side, if you make $1000. per week you will not get more than $590. despite it being less than 2/3 of your weekly salary. You also, in filling out the paperwork, have to elect if you will have them take out taxes. Good luck!