Hello ladies! I'm almost 7 weeks along and a first time poster here. I'm so excited for all of us!
I've been trying to look into all the maternity leave laws.....every website and person I go to says something different. This is what I think I MIGHT get....but it sounds too good to be true....any experts here?
-4 weeks before your due date (disability pay from the state)
-6-8 weeks after the birth (disability pay from the state)
-6 weeks of Family Medical Insurance (partly paid)
-12 weeks of NJ Family Medical Leave Act (not paid at all)
I really want to make sure I have my facts straight, for when I sit down and talk to my boss....I am concerned they might give me grief and I want to make sure I'm legally entitled to all this.
Re: Maternity leave/family leave act etc
Different places interpret things differently, but mine went:
1. Up to 4 wks before due date (had to use X amt of my PTO -- I went out 2 wks before)
2. 6-8 wks after the baby arrives, depending on vaginal or c-section.
--> Of those up to 12 wks out, 6 wks is partially paid under FMLA
3. NJ FMLI/NJ FLA run concurrently, paying you partially for 6 wks, protection up to 12, I think
All in all, I was out until my DD's 4th month "birthday", which I was really happy with.
Here's how my leave went:
- 3 weeks off prior to delivery paid through NJ Short Term Disability(you can take up to 4 weeks)
- 6 weeks off post delivery paid through NJ Short Term Disability
- 6 weeks off paid through NJ Family Leave Insurance after being declared recovered by my doctor
- I'll be returning to work when my daughter is 12 weeks old.
FMLA applies to the time prior to delivery and 6-8 weeks post delivery. The day you deliver your NJ Family Leave Act (different from NJ Family Leave Insurance) kicks in and runs concurrently with your remaining FMLA; you'll exhaust your FMLA before you exhaust your NJFLA. The rate at which you are paid is 66% of your salary earned in the last 1200 hours worked (I'm a little iffy on the hours worked) for both short term disability and NJFLI.
This may be slightly different if you are a teacher or your employer has a private short term disability policy.
Also, you only have to fill out the Short Term Disability forms. The State will send you instructions on how to request NJFLI once you are considered recovered (and it can be done online now); DO NOT send them the paper form for NJFLI. You'll just waste your time and a stamp as it will be denied because technically you already have an open claim that's being transferred over from STD.
Ok ladies, I'm now more confused than ever. Maybe it's just me, but I'm finding this incredibly difficult to understand. Here is what I thought I get - is this not correct?
4 weeks off before due date - 2/3 of salary - under short term disability
6-8 weeks after birth - 2/3 of salary - under short term disability
after short term disability is up - then 6 weeks partially paid - then another 6 weeks unpaid if I want to take it? This would be under NJ Medical Leave and NJ Family Leave Act - which run concurrently together?
All in all, if I don't have a c-section, I should get 22 weeks off, with 16 of them being partially paid? Baby will be around 4 months old when I go back to work?
I guess I'll try to email someone from the state. I don't trust my HR department to give me the correct answers.
Yes you get 4 weeks prior to delivery paid through STD.
Yes you get 6-8 weeks post delivery paid through STD.
Immediately following those 6-8 weeks, you will collect 66% of your salary under NJ Family Leave Insurance. You can collect this for up to 6 weeks.
There's a lot of gray area on how FMLA and NJ Family Leave Act effect one another. The AG's office does interpret it as running consecutively but many employers interpret it as running concurrently. The AG's office's interpretation does not make it law. I spoke with an employment attorney about the interpretation and was told it's at the employer's discretion, so you'll need to find out how your employer interprets it. Assuming they interpret it as running concurrently you could have up to 18 weeks off, 12 weeks of which would be paid through STD and then NJFLI.
Family Medical Leave Act is only a job protection law. Your job is protected for 12 weeks under FMLA and another 6-12, depending on your employer's interpretation. (see my post above)
As a Director of Human Resources in NJ, and someone who is also 7 weeks pregnant I strongly encourage you to speak to your HR rep as soon as your feel comfortable telling them about the pregnancy. There are no real "maternity" laws, in NJ or federally, although pregnancy is certainly covered under FMLA and NJFMLA (both unpaid) and NJ Paid Family Leave. It's great to be in NJ so there is state disability coverage (when disability starts and stops all depends on your doctor and how they fill out the paperwork - it may be longer than 6 - 8 weeks after delivery if they do not release you to go back to work because of complications). Your company may also have supplemental disability insurance which may cover anywhere up to 100%. For instance, our company uses the state disability insurance to cover the first 66.67%, we have private insurance that covers up to 70% (because we have employees in states that do not have their own disability policies) and then we require employees to use up their remaining vacation time (the goal is two fold - to get employees as close to 100% of their pay as possible for as long as possible, and to have employees use up vacation so they aren't out for 3 months on FMLA and then turn around and take a 2 week vacation). After the state and private disability stop because your doctor has released you to return to work, you can then take NJ Paid Family Leave for a period (covers 2/3 of your weekly salary but the cap is about $550 per week so depending on your salary, it may be less) and again our company would use any remaining vacation time to make up the difference to 100% of salary for as long as possible.
My point is this - every company's policies on whether or not their require you to use vacation, sick or any other type of PTO, whether or not they have private disability insurance, a specific maternity leave policy and a million other tiny details are all unique to that specific company and your best resource is the HR department. I completely understand wanting to wait a while to tell them, but if they are any good at all, you should be able to speak to them in confidence and expect that they will not let anyone know you are pregnant if you ask them to keep it confidential until you are ready to tell your boss and/or co-workers.
If there are any other specific questions I can try to answer, please let me know.
If you are placed on bedrest for a medical reason, you can be out on disability more than 4 weeks prior. I was placed on STD 8 weeks out from my EDD due to having Pubic Symphasis Dystasis. Other than that, everything written here is exactly how it was explained to me.