What kind of maternity leave benefits do you have?

cjeanies

The post below has me wondering.  The poster is giving two weeks right after coming back from ML and quite a few have said that she might owe something after getting paid maternity leave.  Now I'm very curious what kind of leave everyone gets.  I thought the standard (and basic) was short term disability insurance for 6-8 weeks and then optional unpaid FMLA leave, not to exceed 12 weeks total. 

Both of these things are available to anyone, though.  I guess I have two questions, really.  Does your company offer real paid maternity leave? and Why would a woman using STD insurance and FMLA be anymore of a flight risk in upper management's eyes than anyone else using it and why would that make them less likely to hire women of child-bearing age?   

jhenry1204

I get nothing but FMLA.  However, I receive 11 1/2 PTO days (for the 1 year, 20 for the 2nd) plus 14 paid holidays.  IF DH and I plan accordingly, I can arrange it to get most of my 6 weeks paid. 

aocain02@yahoo.com

In California we have FMLA and the California family rights act. Each give you 12 weeks of job protection but there is some overlap when you are no longer considered disabled. I work for a city and only have a long term disability policy. I had to be considered disabled for 40 days before that kicked in and use my pto for that time. I went on leave at 36 weeks to start that clock so I could receive some disability. Other than that we use our time off banks. I took a total of 6 months off, paid. .

Spenjamins

STD and FMLA run concurrently and some people aren't eligible for any sort of monetary leave benefit.

The idea that women won't return after leave and aren't as committed to their job as people without kids.

BeccaMarie

My workplace provides us the opportunity to purchase STD insurance, which pays us for 5 or 7 weeks of leave (depending on vaginal or c-section)

My workplace also offers paid parenting leave - it is dependent on how long you have worked for the company, but most people qualify for around 1-2 weeks.

They also offer an internal 'STD' policy.  The internal policy is written such that if someone is on maternity leave, they can use the internal STD for paid time off, after they apply their STD insurance and parenting leave.  Again, it depends on how long you have worked for the company, but I believe I qualified for 2 weeks paid (don't quite remember)

Finally, for salaried individuals, you can pro-rate any lost-pay.  So, for example if I was going to take a 13 week maternity leave, and hadn't purchased the STD insurance, I would be eligible for 2 weeks paid parenting leave and 2 weeks internal STD.  That would leave me 9 weeks unpaid.  Instead of missing paychecks for those 9 weeks, I could allocate the difference in my pay and take smaller paychecks year-round. (and the pay difference is calculated based on hours worked, so if I was on leave during our 'busy season' I would take a greater pay cut than if I was on leave during our 'off season')

I thought that our policies were great and fair.  We received an e-mail the other day that some new policies are coming out.  I am nervous to see what they are.

SuwaneeGirl

I have income protection in the way of STD. But, I do not have any leave time other than my vacation time. My employer is not subject to FMLA.

However, if this came about, I would negotiate something with them. I am pretty sure I could get them to hold my job for 3 months.

AutumnBride929

Unpaid FMLA and that's it.  I can use accrued PTO but I never have much, if any, of that because we travel a lot, lol.

mysticporter

I get FMLA only, and no STD.  Any paid leave comes out of sick/vaca time.

momofolivia

my company offers:

STD:
- 100% of pay for the first two weeks
- 50% of your pay for the remainder (4 more weeks for vag delivery)

After STD, I either use PTO or get unpaid.

Use FMLA from the beginning.

FutureGosnell

Unpaid FMLA leave, except I am forced to use all my sick leave and then can opt to use my vacation time.

xtencornfield

FMLA only and you have to use accrued benefit time to pay for it or you can take it unpaid after all of your accruals are exhausted (they take sick time first, then personal days, and then vacation days).  Luckily, I saved and saved and came back after 12 weeks and still had a week of benefit time left.

sapphirebride06

We are a small company and have nothing.  I'm curious when that will change as we are expanding and now opening a second office but we have some contract workers so they aren't considered true employees.  I'm curious what the Texas laws are regarding that because we have a few employees currently pregnant and a few that have mentioned wanting a baby within a year or so - I'm curious how the new hires will change our count to see if we qualify.

lindsleek

I got 12 weeks off paid at 75% of my salary. But I work for a county and am in a union and that is one of the better maternity leaves I have heard of! I am glad I got to take advantage of it!!!

Trissie18

I received six weeks paid. We do not qualify for FMLA.

BriAndSean

We have STD benefits for 6 or 8 wks depending on delivery type. The percentage of pay depends upon your tenure. I got 6 wks at 100% pay with both kiddos. I then took FMLA for an additional 4 weeks and went back PT using FMLA and WA state leave. I work 4 days per week until he is 4 months old and then every other Friday off until he is a year old. This is all covered under FMLA and WA state leave.

RE your other question, IMO anyone using FMLA/STD/LTD/etc. is looked at differently. The more people use those benefits, the riskier they are to management.

The_Quiet_One

I can use all my sick and annual leave -- right now I'm looking at having almost 200 hours of SL and almost 150 hours of AL at the end of this calendar year, plus all that I earn between January and the Munchkin's birth -- and then take FMLA.  So I could conceivably be off for 24 weeks, half of it fully paid and half unpaid.

We can't afford to do that, as my income is the one that pays the bills, but it's kind of cool to know that's an option. 

monica92603

NJ has a whole bunch of stuff, 2 leaves are paid and 2 are just job protection.

Since my company is large enough, I get

12w job protection from FMLA and 12w job protection from NJFLA.  These run somewhat concurrently so I'll have a total of 20 total weeks of protection.  These are unpaid.

STD will give me 8w paid 100% from my c/s and whatever else I decide to take beforehand.  Then there is the new NJ law FLI which gives me 6w paid at 66%.  I will also take my 1w of sick time and 1w of vacation time I still have left from this year.  So since I "plan" to work up till the day before my c/s b/c this is our busy time of year, I will be taking 16w total.  8w 100% and 8w 66% all job protected.