February 2015 Moms

Maternity Leave and loss of wages

edited June 2014 in February 2015 Moms
So what do you do when your company doesn't offer paid Maternity leave, your job is not covered under FMLA, you don't qualify for Maternity Leave Insurance, and your state doesn't offer temporary disability or "compelling family reasons" unemployment insurance for pregnant women?

I am really concerned about loss of wages and losing my job come February. My boss is really upset about how she had to find out about my pregnancy and I am afraid she's going to start getting a little shady about it come the end of this year. She's already stressing about having to hire a part time person to fill in for me while I'm gone, but given her "bipolar" way of handling things, I am not convinced that she won't do a complete 180 on me someday soon.

Due to the size of the company, and the fact that come February, I'll be 2 months shy of 1 year here, my position is not safe and even though she says for me not to worry about it, I worry!, given her history of doing the exact polar opposite of what she has said. Nevada doesn't offer temporary disability or unemployment to women who need time off due to pregnancy, and by voluntarily going on maternity leave from my job, if my boss decides to pull something shady, I won't be able to collect unemployment for losing my job.

So then what more can I do? I can't afford to be without some form of income and Nevada has made it to where the employers have more rights than the workers do when it comes to job and financial security. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
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Re: Maternity Leave and loss of wages

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  • wintersong139wintersong139 member
    edited June 2014
    I'm sorry your stressed out about this. If you are not able/willing to find another job now, your best bet is to figure out a way to work with your employer to get as much time as you can while making her feel at ease.

    First question: do you get any paid time off or paid sick days with your job? This would represent the first part of your maternity leave, so these should be paid and no problem. If you do get paid time off, would your boss consider going "negative" on paid time off for two weeks or so?

    Also, you are only giving us part of the picture: do you have family/so/friends who can help you during this time?

    It's good that you are planning now, but you should not start to panic. You start to plan now so that you DON'T have to worry later.
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  • Ugh.  Just listening to what moms have to go through in the US for maternity makes me ragey for you.  X(

    I'm sorry that this is so stressful for you.  I can commiserate.  I'm not going to go into my long, tragic, and convoluted story, but I can definitely commiserate.  I hope your boss pulls her head out of her butt.

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  • You mentioned maybe wanting to get another job anyway because of her calling you out on your weight. I would recommend saving as much as possible or taking out a small loan to help with expenses while out on ML???

    Maybe you could get terminated shortly before you are due, and get  termination unemployment while taking a few weeks of leave to look for another job? This doesnt sound far fetched being as though you said your boss may turn on you (which I assume means to fire you)

    I dont know if I have any sound advice for you, but this place doesnt seem like ideal employment. Best you get out of there anyway.  
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  • The pregnancy wasn't planned sadly. And we have plenty of money for HE and I to live on, but a baby kinda changes things and it was just an expense we weren't expecting. If it were, then yes we would have planned for this before conceiving. But here we are. So, yes I have thought about getting a part time job, and I think that's what is going to have to happen since my hubby works 50+ hours a week as is, he really doesn't have the extra time to work a second job. We are saving as best as we can as much as we can, but frankly I have no idea how much is enough, probably a stupid thought to begin with. I dont know, I feel like I should have been better prepared for this and now that I'm not, I just feel like I've failed already.
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  • jaztaz1 said:

    You mentioned maybe wanting to get another job anyway because of her calling you out on your weight. I would recommend saving as much as possible or taking out a small loan to help with expenses while out on ML???


    Maybe you could get terminated shortly before you are due, and get  termination unemployment while taking a few weeks of leave to look for another job? This doesnt sound far fetched being as though you said your boss may turn on you (which I assume means to fire you)

    I dont know if I have any sound advice for you, but this place doesnt seem like ideal employment. Best you get out of there anyway.  
    Thanks Jaz! That is the plan, just never thought I'd have to find another job so soon after finding this one. But yea, maybe having her terminate me before giving birth is the best course of action to ensure I get some form of income while out recovering and then finding a new job.

    Apparently, now she is being sued for releasing confidential patient information about one of her husbands patients. I wonder how this is going to back to bite me. Some guy just dropped off a piece of paper warning her that she's being sued, and sadly I'm just the messenger at this point.
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  • If you are like me, maybe you will feel better if you actually make a baby budget--like in hard numbers, with all the costs spelled out as best you can estimate. Then you can actually know what you will need, instead of vaguely feeling like what you have is not enough. Don't forget to take into account that you will probably make a registry and people will want to buy you stuff.
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  • First and foremost, try not to panic. Sit down over the next few days and calculate ALL of your expenses including groceries, eating out, cell phone bills, everything. You'll have a better idea of what you need to do after you know exactly what you need.

    I totally agree with looking into things you can scale back on. Things like a lesser car insurance plan for a car that isn't driven as much, cutting back or canceling your cable plan and using Hulu or netflix instead, or cutting back cell phone minutes can all add up over the next 9 months.

    Also look into buying used baby gear or even borrowing from friends instead of buying new stuff. If family or friends want to give you a baby gift ask for cash instead.

    You have time on your side to figure out what you need and how to make it happen! Don't panic and it will work out
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  • @wintersong139 any chance u have some sort of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template ud like to share?? :)
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  • If you are like me, maybe you will feel better if you actually make a baby budget--like in hard numbers, with all the costs spelled out as best you can estimate. Then you can actually know what you will need, instead of vaguely feeling like what you have is not enough. Don't forget to take into account that you will probably make a registry and people will want to buy you stuff.

    Yea this is true, and I am like you, I budget down to the last cent needed. And we do have WIC here, and the baby will qualify for Medicaid for at least the first year of its life. So I guess we're going to be ok. I just get tunnel vision and start stressing without looking at all the possibilities; I have a real problem with that and sadly so does my hubby sometimes. But I think if we budget, we will be fine. And yes we will have registries at babies r us and Target. A lot of our friends are going to be going hog wild in outfitting our child. Its like our kid becomes theirs on some level, which is nice sometimes. Thanks for letting me have my wigg-out moment for this week.

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  • @lauren889 -
    Nope, still working on it myself--in case your mobile and can't see my siggy, I am only 5 weeks and some change, and a FTM. I am polling my friends with kids to try to make it as realistic as possible--I've discovered so far that it is actually significantly LESS expensive than I thought to have a baby, although still costly of course. Maybe if I get it more complete I can share for S+TMs to critique.
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  • @wintersong139 thanks! I'm a ftm as well. My husband is a pro at spreadsheets (he'd a nerd and loves spreadsheets) we just don't know what to put into it! Ah!
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  • It was definitely less expensive than we thought... we had a shower and got most of the gear needed and loaaaaads of diapers. If you breastfeed also significantly cheaper. We currently spend about 40 a month on diapers and maybe another 30 a month in random stuff for him tbh
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  • It was definitely less expensive than we thought... we had a shower and got most of the gear needed and loaaaaads of diapers. If you breastfeed also significantly cheaper. We currently spend about 40 a month on diapers and maybe another 30 a month in random stuff for him tbh
    This is the best news I have heard all day! I have wondered how people's expenses chnage with baby. Day care and insurance is a huge concern for us, but I am worried about actual daily expenses as well. 


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  • I cant speak of daycare.. I decided to become sah.. and our insurance didnt change because under h's plan at work its either "self" or "family".. so we could have 18 kids and it would stay the same
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  • Everyone else gave great advice. Save as much as you can now!

    Your boss sounds like an a-hole, but if you do decide to stay at your job, is there any way that you could put something together with her and have her sign it guaranteeing your job when you get released back to work by your doctor? At least you would have a document to fall back on if she tries to fight it.

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  • mahalo3 said:

    SAVE SAVE SAVE! Anything and everything, save! I even took up a second job for the next few months. We really can't afford to lose 2-3 month of my salary. I budgeted my expenses for those 2 or 3 months, and I broke out the total by the number of pay checks I will receive before then. I save that amount out of each paycheck to cover those months I will be off. The second job I have is to pay off my credit card and car before baby comes to free up that cash each month. I would save like your life depended on it right now, and cut whatever expenses you can to prepare (cable, check out car insurance options, cell phone plan, etc.) Good luck! Your boss sounds like a douche. 

    Great advice!


    I am self employed and above posts couldn't of said it better. I am saving anywhere and everywhere I can. Also not taking as much time off. Depending on my health of coarse.
  • Everyone has given you great advice. One extra thing I'm working on now is just putting extra money down on our utility bills so there is a surplus when that time rolls around in the accounts so we don't have to worry about those (particularly heating because Minnesota can be pricey in February when it comes to that.) Just something small you can do to help yourself out! Good luck!
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