Poll: Maternity Leave benefits

mrslsb

Hi all, sorry it's been awhile since I've caught up here. Had a question for all of you who have worked in NC recently. What were your maternity leave benefits beyond just having your job held for 12 weeks, if any? Specifically, did your employer offer paid compensation for any amount of time? Roughly, what is the size of your company?  I'm exploring what other employers in the state offer for negotiation purposes. Thanks for any info.

becki777

I was allowed 13 weeks of job protection. It was not paid compensation, but I was able to use my extended sick time, vacation & PTO. I was able to take 10 weeks at full time pay, and the remaining 3 weeks at partial pay.

My medical benefits were maintained as long as I continued making payments. (Mine were taken out of my check, but if someone was taking unpaid leave they could pay them directly)

And, I got a $25 gift card from our corporate office as a new baby gift 

ETA: I work for a nationwide corporation with thousands of employees. There are about 50 in my location. 

sophabelle

most companies do not offer paid leave unless you're using your vacation time or have short term disability coverage. 

i used 4 weeks of vacation pay so that i would have some income while i was out.  my company did not legally have to offer me FMLA leave bc they didn't have 50 employees but did offer me 12 weeks of job protection.   

i still received my health insurance benefits while i was out on leave which was nice.  i did decide to quit my job while i was still on leave as it was cheaper for me to loose my income than pay for daycare!  crazy. 

anyway, luckily i did not have to pay back anything for the benefits i received while on leave, some companies require you to pay them back or you have to come back to work for a certain period before you can quit and not owe anything.

MrsHughesNC

Ditto the PP's..most companies nowadays do not provide a paid maternity leave. My husband's company offers a 6 week paid leave, and that is almost unheard of. Too bad I can't seem to get a job there. :-)

Most companies offer short term disability coverage, which will pay typically 50-60% of your salary for a certain number of weeks. Sometimes that coverage is employer paid, but often times it's voluntary, and you must pay your own premiums.

And FMLA (which is federal legislation, not a paid leave program) will protect your job for 12 weeks, whether your company pays you or not (assuming the meet the FMLA coverage requirements). But there is no pay attached to that. HTH.

mrslsb

Thanks ladies. From my "research" I'm hearing such a range of responses. Some companies here offer 8 weeks fully paid, others 6 weeks, others (like what you're all describing) nothing at all. Such a difference from states where they actually have benefit programs in place through the state.

raceyrae

I have a friend who works for a big pharma company and the pay 100% for up to 4-6 mo. of maternity leave -- lucky girl!

I work for a large international company with 1,200 employees in the US.  I get 60% pay for STD for 7 weeks (had c/s, the other week of the 8 weeks is unpaid processing time).  My company allows me to take up to 16 weeks off in which I can use STD, my vacation/sick time, or unpaid time.

Lawren

We get 12 weeks off, unpaid, but can opt to use any PTO that you have if you want. But I'm not going to use any of mine. I work for a Dermatologist and we have about 15 employees.

uncjules

My office has 200+ people, but our company has about 8000 employees nationally.

I had to take one week of personal leave, then got 7 weeks of short-term disability. In my company, that means that if you've been here less than 5 years you get 66.7% of your pay and if more than 5 years you get 80% of your pay. You can work up to a certain number of hours during that time too, which allows you to make money in addition to the percentage you are already getting. (I worked 4-8 hours a week to keep up with two projects I managed.) After the 7 weeks of STD (so 8 weeks post-partum), you could take personal leave for additional time off.

Bensbride2006

I work for an International company with 40,000 employees worldwide and 1,300 in my office.  I am extremely lucky with benefits and was able to take 20 weeks total without using any vacation or sick days.  12 weeks are fully paid and you have the option to take the additional 8 unpaid.  My insurance was never interrupted and during my unpaid weeks I just paid the company my normal premiums. 

If I am still working here for our next baby, I plan to do the same thing.  After 5 years I am eligible for a 3 months sabbatical, which hopefully I can add on to the end of my maternity leave. 

crescentmoon99

I was allowed to take 8 weeks unpaid leave (company only had 40 employees, so no FMLA).  I could use any accrued sick and vacation time for that, also use the STD policy I had through work.

I think that paid maternity leave is pretty rare these days, but usually you can save up PTO to use to cover most of it.

uncharch7

We are covered by FMLA only (local gov't). I will use all of my PTO between vacation, sick and comp and that will get me just over 6 weeks. If I were to go on STD, it has a 1 week waiting period and then covers 50% of your pay, but you're 100% responsible for your insurance... so instead of paying $8/week, I'd have to pay about $130/week. My paycheck would be so, so small it's pathetic. I'm hoping to avoid a c/s and I'll go back to work after 6 weeks, but DH will then start staying home for a total of 8 weeks and use his sick time. He doesn't have any paternity leave benefits (state) outside of FMLA.

jenwill

I work for a major local university/health system, with 1000's (or more) of employees. We, of course, are covered for 12 weeks by FMLA for job protection. We get 3 weeks paid "parental leave", then can use PTO for the rest-as you have it. STD is an option that you can pay into a policy for yourself. I had enough PTO so I didn't worry about that so couldn't quote you the specifics on that.

rchlmc

I work for one of the largest schools systems in the state - we can take up to one year unpaid and still be guaranteed a position within the system.  It may not be at the same school, but somewhere.

They will continue to pay our insurance premiums during the 12 week FMLA period, but if we stay out longer we have to start paying through COBRA.  We can also use sick/personal/annual days to get paid during our time off, but for only long as it is medically necessary for us to be out.

  

mrslsb

Thank you, all. This is so helpful!

JuberP

Employment of less than a year = 12 weeks of keeping your position (FMLA); 6 - 8 weeks of STD paid at 70% depending on delivery;  medical benefits must be paid out of pocket while on leave and repay company portion if you do not return.

Employement of greater than a year = 12 weeks keeping your position (FMLA);  6 - 8 weeks of STD paid at 70% depending on delivery; after which you get 6 - 8 weeks company paid maternity leave at 100% depending on delivery; medical benefits paid out of pocket during STD, paid out of paycheck on company paid maternity.  Must repay company portion of medical benefits if you do not return to work.

Company size is around 2,000 worldwide and 300 in Charlotte.

 HTH!

everam01

My company offers standard 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave.

If we have any sick leave or vacation leave on the books, we use that in order to get paid. 

In our package of optional benefits we also have a short-term disability policy we can purchase. I did and it covered almost my entire paycheck from the time I was put on bed rest through the 8 week post-csection recovery period. 

I was actually out 4 months so technically my company could have fired me, but they did not. 

I work for a public college.