Paid maternity leave?

holtzm · November 2013

I saw the discussion on jobs and maternity leave and wanted to take it a step further. How common is it for companies to offer paid maternity leave? I'm a newspaper journalist and my company only offers what's covered under FMLA. 12 weeks, unpaid but I can use up my sick time (which isn't a lot). I'm a first-time mom so I have no clue how much time I should take off to physically recover and bond with baby, but the cut to my pay makes me feel like financially I'll have to go back to work sooner than I hoped. Any thoughts?

MissLadyTay · November 2013

I think it is very hard to generalize what is common. In certain industries (law, finance) almost all firms offer at least some paid mat leave. And I'm surprised your paper offers nothing. My dad works at a paper and it offers 8 weeks paid plus unpaid time under FMLA.

shortnstumpy · November 2013

It depends where you live. In Australia I believe all workplaces offer paid maternity leave if you have been in continuous employment for a year and are employed on a part time of full time basis.

MCH77 · November 2013

I have to use up my sick days. Luckily I have about 40.

britab · November 2013

The only paid leave I have is sick days too.

ns1 · November 2013

I only have unpaid leave, but I can use the few vacation and sick days I'll have after I take most of it for being sickvand appointments. I do have a short term disability plan that helps. I took 8 wks with DD and plan to do the same this time.

IBackBevo · November 2013

I did not get any paid maternity leave other than my accumulated pto and I am a so-called "professional" In a ggenerally well-paid field. In my experience, the only people I know who get paid maternity arw those that work for large employers and even then I think paid leave is probably the exception rather than the rule.

lovelylauren86 · November 2013

I'm supposed to get my full pay for 3 months but I'm moving and will be working from home so I'm not sure how it's going to work out

SMM1986 · November 2013

I get 66% pay for 6 weeks (8 if c section). Anything else is unpaid.

chillypenguin · November 2013

I get short term disability that pays out 80% for 5 weeks for a vaginal delivery, 6 weeks at 80% and 1 week at 60% for a c-section. Technically, it's 6 and 8 weeks total, but the first 40 hours we have to use PTO. Then we can use any remaining PTO for the rest of the 12 weeks or take it unpaid. This time around I am going to have a lot less PTO built up, so that kind of sucks..

gerlam5 · November 2013

As a teacher I can use sick/vacation days

candrew05 · November 2013

In Ontario it's something like 55% of your salary that you will be paid through ei. And it seems mostly larger organizations like the hospital I work at will top that up to a certain percentage. Ill be topped up to about 90% of current salary which I certainly cannot complain about.

RiRi415 · November 2013

Im a police officer. We get up to 3 months of leave but we use our sick, vaca, or overtime hours. My hubby and I also have aflac which will help $ wise so if I decided to take more time it wouldnt hurt too bad. Does anyone else have aflac?

Marcella05 · November 2013

My employer gives 13 weeks 100% pay for maternity leave. And I can add my PTO or sick days to that if needed. I work for a financial company.

CamrynnsMommy · November 2013

I worked for a small law firm with DD2, I had to use my PTO to cover maternity leave, unfortunately I didn't accumulate enough to cover 6 weeks, so I went back at 4 weeks. Or else I did not get paid.

ho11yday · November 2013

I get 2 weeks of sick pay each year, which rolls over yearly up to a max of 320 hours or something like that. I also get 3 weeks of vacation yearly that we have to use within that year (anniversary date to anniversary date). In 3 years, I should get 4 weeks of vacation.

We can use our short-term and long-term disability to supplement our pay while gone in addition to using our sick and vacation time. However, there is no specific maternity package other than what is offered to FMLA.

Storrmys · November 2013

I work for the worlds largest retailer and the only pay I will get is my vacation and sick time I have accumulated... But that's ok since my anniversary date should fall within the time of my leave and I can use this years 2 weeks and next years also

Ayesha4160 · November 2013

OMG in the UK we get it pretty good we get statuary maternity pay which is 90% pay for first 6 weeks then about £150 a week for 33 weeks then anything else is unpaid I'm taking a year off to bond with my first baby

CMDR513 · November 2013

I need 5 weeks to carry me to the end of the school year. I will get paid for 2 weeks.

glowworm0166 · November 2013

You said you were unsure of how long it would take you to physically recover and bond with the baby. That is sort of a tricky question. My employer's standard mat leave is 6 weeks paid for vaginal delivery or 8 weeks for a c-section plus another 2 weeks of bonding time for either scenario. After I had my son I felt that I could probably physically go to work and sit at my desk after two weeks (I had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery). But, that doesn't take into account breastfeeding - my son didn't take a bottle until about 6 weeks so I couldn't really have left him before that. My sister had a very complicated c-section which was followed by an infection and a follow up surgery. I don't think she was physically well enough to even consider going back to work until about 12 weeks. Baby bonding and when you feel emotionally ready to go back to work is a completely different story. I went back to work after 12 weeks and it was extremely painful to leave my son - for months. He is 17 months now and I still rush home at the end of every day to see him. When I have a day where I don't see him (I leave for work before he gets up and rarely, but occasionally, don't get home until after he's in bed) pretty much still break my heart. (They require a lot of looking at pictures and videos on my phone.) But there are people who are really ready to go back to work at the end of their leave. So... I guess it just really depends on you (physically and emotionally) and while you can plan for what you want to happen you just won't really know until the time comes.

jenniferroshto · November 2013

Mine is unpaid, 12 weeks. Plus they will automatically pay all of what's left of my pto time, which doesn't acrue so once I go back I will be without any sick time or anything until my yearly anniversary comes around again (sorry, I just don't think that's fair, they should give me the choice of whether to use it or not). I have a short term disability policy through aflac that will pay me 6 weeks for vaginal delivery or 8 for c section. I plan on taking six weeks.

sweetky_06 · November 2013

I'm in the tech industry and my employer's STD is 100% pay for the 6-8 weeks pp, + 3 paid weeks on top of that. We are covered by FMLA to protect our jobs, but I simply ask for additional unpaid time off.

My company doesn't track sick or vacation time, so I can't hoard it ahead of time to use, which is partly why they pay the extra 3 weeks.

Last time I was out 5 1/2 months, this time I think I'll take a total of about 4, which is about when I would have been completely comfortable coming back last time. I'm working on saving up enough money so that when I add it with my STD that I can cover the mortgage payment and DS #1 daycare (since he'll still go a few days a week while I'm on leave) for those 4 months.

Themetastic · November 2013

The US is the worst country with maternity leave policies. When I had DS, I was only able to take FMLA and got 0 pay. Since then, there has been a bit of a baby boom at work and some drama has stirred. It turns out some women were being paid and others weren't, so now they put a paid leave in place. We get 1 week of 100% and 5 additional weeks at 60%. If we have short term disability, it will pick up the remaining 40%. So, I will be paid 100% for 6 of the 12 weeks I take off with this one.

ksyknelvr73 · November 2013

I think it varies from place to place and with each company. When I had DS, the place I was at didn't offer paid maternity leave - you could use sick/vacation time and then you got the 12 weeks FMLA but it was unpaid. All but 2 weeks of the 12 I took were unpaid. We saved the whole time I was pregnant to prepare for it.

This time, I'm at a different company, and they have a STD policy...so I should get paid 100% of my salary for 4 weeks, 60% for 2 weeks and then the last 6 weeks will be unpaid. We will save again but not as much since I will be getting a paycheck for some of the time.

SweetTea420 · November 2013

I believe I get 60% pay for 6-8 weeks and then after that I have to use my PTO. I'm trying to save up as much as I can! I plan on taking off 12 weeks.

crystalmir91385 · November 2013

All I have/get is my saved sick days. I have 20. As long as I don't deliver too early, that should take me to the end of the school year. I think the hardest part will be going back to work in August after having spent the whole summer with my LO.

christieep · November 2013

Ours isn't specified as maternity leave. We can take as many days/weeks as the doctor allows and they are paid as long as we have sick leave banked. If you don't have the days, the leave is unpaid.

ciarasoleil · November 2013

In most places in Canada exception Quebec, we get paid 12 months of ei at approx 50-55%, not a lot of companies top up. We also get an extra $100 per month per kid until they are 18. Its better then nothing

pandadair · November 2013

ciarasoleil said:

In most places in Canada exception Quebec, we get paid 12 months of ei at approx 50-55%, not a lot of companies top up. We also get an extra $100 per month per kid until they are 18. Its better then nothing

Especially if by nothing you mean what many of the women on this board are getting. I'd trade mat leave policies with a Canadian (or Brit or <insert any other nationality in the world>) in a heartbeat.

Paid maternity leave?

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