I am pretty lucky: My company qualifies for FMLA and they offer STD free to employees which covers pregnancy. The STD kicks in after you have been out for one week and pays out 100% for weeks 2-9 and then it pays 60% for weeks 10 and after. I am sure they won't pay out though if the doctor has released you to work after the standard 6/8 week recovery time. So assuming they won't pay after that, I'm looking at 4-6 weeks unpaid if I were to take the entire 12 weeks allowed under FMLA and not use any PTO.
Mine is pretty good. They have six weeks mat leave at 80% pay; then I use my PTO. I have 20 days accumulated now. Typically I would only be allowed to accumulate 30 days before I had to use or lose them, but once I get close to 30 day, I can request a waiver to continue accumulating, and maternity leave is an approved reason. We aren't planning to start TTC until January, so I estimate my worst case time off to be 15 weeks. I have to use all my PTO, but at least I'll still be making good money and getting my health care, since I am our primary breadwinner.
@PuppyLove84--I used to work for the federal government. While it is true that technically you have no 'paid leave,' if your agency has a medical leave bank, you may be in luck.
Our medical leave bank paid my full salary while I was on bedrest, my 6-weeks post delivery, and an additional 6 weeks because of some issues that my daughter had gaining weight/failure to thrive. The catch is you have to use ALL your sick and annual leave before the MLB kicks in. But once it does, you acquire leave, up to 40 hours sick and 40 hours annual, while you are out. My agency holds jobs for up to a year, so I didn't even have to invoke FMLA and I returned to the same job. Unfortunately because of my daughter's issues, I quickly burned through the leave I accrued while on FMLA and ultimately moved on to the private sector where I have more flexibility in my hours and schedule. I would really look into if your agency has a medical leave bank. It was so helpful to not have to worry about anything.
My current job pays for my Short and Long term disability premiums. They pay 8 weeks full pay for maternity leave, and the disability would pay 60% salary for any other medical condition (like bed rest, or non-pregnancy related things.). Technically, we can only have 12 weeks of FMLA for bonding post-birth. But they are very flexible about allowing a gradual/part time return to work or a partial or temporary work from home arrangement for many situations including post-baby, as long as you can articulate child care arrangements. I am currently the only person at my huge company that does my exact job, and I already work from home 1-2 days per week, so I am hoping to keep that or a few more work from home days in the few months after maternity leave. It is an amazing company and I know I have been very lucky in both positions.
My maternity leave is covered under FMLA . So essentially I can take leave of absence under FMLA up to a year after baby is born without pay of course. When I do take leave of absence, my STD (short term disability) will kick in at 75% of my pay for the first 6-8 weeks after which I can use my vacation time (2 extra weeks) Not terrible but I wish I were in Canada at times like these.
We receive 12 weeks of FMLA and short-term disability at 65% of pay for hourly or 100% pay for salaried employees. Short-term disability is approved based on what your doctor puts you off of work for.
Well by law you can take 12 weeks off. My employer didn't not pay me for any of it. I actually lost my job once I went to go back after my leave. I couldn't work till 8 at night and I didn't want to work 40+hours a week anymore.
Fmla only guarantees you the time off & your job to come back to after leave. It doesn't guarantee it's paid. My job lets you use your paid time off towards maternity leave. So I will get three weeks paid, anything additional will be unpaid so I'm hoping my doctor allows me to go back to work after 3-4 weeks.
FI's firm is pretty good with maternity leave. She gets 12 weeks at full pay and then she can take 12 weeks of FMLA at 50% pay if she wants too. Right now she thinks she'll just take the full pay 12 weeks and maybe go back at reduced hours at first.
I'm basically self-employed and we're small enough that we don't have to follow FMLA guidelines. I set my own schedule as well, so I'll probably plan a few weeks off at first, and then just work my schedule around FI and baby.
Well, I had been thinking about trying to find a more fulfilling job before we TTC. But this thread has made me wonder if that's a good choice... My current job is ok, but not what I want to be doing as a career. However, maternity leave at my company is 8 weeks at 100% paid, and then we can take the 12 weeks unpaid FMLA after that. There's also (unpaid) paternity leave [hubs works for the same company]. I knew our maternity leave in America wasn't great, but I didn't know it was the norm to be so bad... Now I feel like I have a pot of gold with my current company.
So glad to find everyone's comments on here. I just found out that even though Ive been with this company for 8 years and Im a full time salaried employee they are giving me 12 weeks of unpaid leave. I guess we will be eating beans for 3 months.
I get 12 weeks unpaid through FLMA . Through the state (NJ) I get 6 weeks or 8 weeks paid for disability and another 6 weeks for family bonding. It's up to 66% of your weekly salary.
12 weeks unpaid, and can use leave and sick time that I have saved up. I have over four weeks on the books now and by the time I will easily have six weeks or more saved. Not that it matters much, as my paycheck is just for padding the savings account.
Up to 6 months unpaid (you can use up your PTO to get some paid) with a guarantee of returning to my job when returning to work. Can apply for an additional year unpaid but I may not get my exact job back. It could be a diff job or if nothing were open I might have to wait for an opening. Only the first 12 weeks does the employer pay for benefits. I would have to pay the cost after that.
For both my leaves I took about 11 weeks was paid pretty close to my regular salary thru STD and PTO.
I get standard up to 12 weeks FMLA. We have to use all of our PTO while on leave, and the rest is unpaid.
We can accrue up to 12 weeks of sick time (you accrue 1 day every 4 weeks), so people who have been there long enough can take their whole 12 weeks paid at full rate & even have vacation time to add to that.
I'm a newer employee & we don't plan to TTC for a few months. I will probably end up having 6 weeks paid at my full rate taking vacation time as well.
I would love to take the full 12 but I'm not sure how that works with doctors appointments etc. after returning. Our vacation time is accrued for use in the next year, so the only thing we will accrue for immediate use is sick time. I worry about the baby getting sick or just normal doctors appointments while having no FMLA or PTO available.
At our recent company picnic a woman I work with told me she reserved some of her FMLA in case her daughter got sick (she adopted in April so still had a lot of the calendar year left to worry about things like this). I hadn't thought about until she mentioned it!
My company is pretty decent I think. For a single birth, you get up to 16 weeks total. The first 6 is paid at 100%, then you can use up to 4 weeks vacation and the rest unpaid. You aren't allowed to use any sick with the thinking that you will need this when you return. You also continue to accrue vacation and sick the entire time you're out. It doesn't change for c-sections but for multiple births it doubles.
Guess I'm lucky living in Norway, we can choose between 49 weeks leave with full pay or 59 weeks with 80% of salary. My partner has to take 10 of the weeks. After this period, 1 year unpaid leave is possible.
My company is small and they actually didn't have a policy in place before I announced. So they had to create one. It pretty much sucks but will be fine.
No paid leave, you can take your PTO (which we accrue a lot of) and then stay home as long as the doctor warrants. There is no cap. Paternity leave is 6 weeks unpaid job security.
But the catch is my office is super flexible and I have streamlined my process so much I can work like an hour and have everything done each day. They will let me work from home for 6 weeks and then start a flex schedule until the baby is 6 months old. Basically working from home, bringing the baby with me, etc. I am a full time salaried employee but my work days are only 5 hours (9-3, 1+ hr lunch) so it will be good even after LO is in daycare.
I work at a public school. We get our unpaid FMLA leave plus we can use any sick/personal days paid that we have accrued. Even though I do envy the Canadians, I am grateful that my school system allows us to take up to 1 full calendar year unpaid total and will hold your spot for when you come back! I plan to take my 1 year (we will be funding everything that's not covered by sick/personal time) and then we are going to evaluate if it is feasible for me to spend any more time as a SAHM, or if I will take my position back.
DH works for a large pharmaceutical company and he gets 3 weeks paid paternity leave I think! He can also use vacation time as well (which he gets a lot of, 5 weeks a year I think) He will probably end up taking 1-3 vacation weeks and being home for the first 4-6 weeks. Might be nice to save the rest for later!
I work for a small company so no coverage. My boss encourages us to take 12 weeks off as she thinks its best for us. When I do get pregnant and have a baby I plan on taking 6 weeks completely off and than going back 10 hours/week for another 12 weeks and than after that work 20-25 hours/week. We can use PTO earned so I should have about 2 weeks of PTO saved by than. I am lucky that my boss tends to be pretty flexible with our schedule.
Very large company, std 12 wks and additional 4 unpaid. I'm curious if they will make you repay your pay if you quit while on leave or shortly after? Need to look it up!
I'm in Canada so we get a year off at a reduced rate paid by the government. (With my last baby I made approx $700 every 2 weeks and I was at the maximum) On top of that my employer offers 15 weeks top up.
Ditto. Luckily my employer is my boyfriends business so he will be assisting to ensure our situation is how we want it. We haven't talked about it that much yet.
I just told my boss I'm pregnant, and instead of even an unpaid maternity leave they are giving me no time off. I have zero approved time off and am being forced to quit my job. This is only legal in the USA because I work for a small medical office that does not have enough employees (25) to have to abide by the FMLA. It sucks and really should be illegal!
I work for the federal government and we get nothing. The president just mandated that all federal agencies offer 6 weeks of advanced sick leave, however, that's still my leave that I will eventually have to pay back.
Six weeks. If you have vacation and sick it must be used, after that it's unpaid leave. You can also look into short term disability. It depends on what the plan is, but for me I chose 14 day short term disability. So, if I were to get pregnant, I'd use 80 hours of vacation or sick and then STD would kick in. It's 66.6% of my full time pay BUT I keep the rest of my vacation and sick time.
To my knowledge, we have 12 weeks, but we only get 60% of whatever you make bi-weekly. Of course before anything else, any remaining PTO is used, then floating holidays if any are left. Then STD (short term disability) would be used to cover the rest. I will be speaking with my HR department to get the exact figures and options as my husband and I will be ttc this summer ^_^
Re: What is offered for maternity leave at your workplace?
Our medical leave bank paid my full salary while I was on bedrest, my 6-weeks post delivery, and an additional 6 weeks because of some issues that my daughter had gaining weight/failure to thrive. The catch is you have to use ALL your sick and annual leave before the MLB kicks in. But once it does, you acquire leave, up to 40 hours sick and 40 hours annual, while you are out. My agency holds jobs for up to a year, so I didn't even have to invoke FMLA and I returned to the same job. Unfortunately because of my daughter's issues, I quickly burned through the leave I accrued while on FMLA and ultimately moved on to the private sector where I have more flexibility in my hours and schedule. I would really look into if your agency has a medical leave bank. It was so helpful to not have to worry about anything.
My current job pays for my Short and Long term disability premiums. They pay 8 weeks full pay for maternity leave, and the disability would pay 60% salary for any other medical condition (like bed rest, or non-pregnancy related things.). Technically, we can only have 12 weeks of FMLA for bonding post-birth. But they are very flexible about allowing a gradual/part time return to work or a partial or temporary work from home arrangement for many situations including post-baby, as long as you can articulate child care arrangements. I am currently the only person at my huge company that does my exact job, and I already work from home 1-2 days per week, so I am hoping to keep that or a few more work from home days in the few months after maternity leave. It is an amazing company and I know I have been very lucky in both positions.
So essentially I can take leave of absence under FMLA up to a year after baby is born without pay of course.
When I do take leave of absence, my STD (short term disability) will kick in at 75% of my pay for the first 6-8 weeks after which I can use my vacation time (2 extra weeks)
Not terrible but I wish I were in Canada at times like these.
_____________________________
For both my leaves I took about 11 weeks was paid pretty close to my regular salary thru STD and PTO.
Marriage: 12.18.04
DD1: 5.19.10
DD2: 4.11.12
I get standard up to 12 weeks FMLA. We have to use all of our PTO while on leave, and the rest is unpaid.
We can accrue up to 12 weeks of sick time (you accrue 1 day every 4 weeks), so people who have been there long enough can take their whole 12 weeks paid at full rate & even have vacation time to add to that.
I'm a newer employee & we don't plan to TTC for a few months. I will probably end up having 6 weeks paid at my full rate taking vacation time as well.
I would love to take the full 12 but I'm not sure how that works with doctors appointments etc. after returning. Our vacation time is accrued for use in the next year, so the only thing we will accrue for immediate use is sick time. I worry about the baby getting sick or just normal doctors appointments while having no FMLA or PTO available.
At our recent company picnic a woman I work with told me she reserved some of her FMLA in case her daughter got sick (she adopted in April so still had a lot of the calendar year left to worry about things like this). I hadn't thought about until she mentioned it!
2nd round exp 8/20/18.
30 - Waiting to TTC#2
PCOS -Fibroids -Type 1 Diabetes
You can also look into short term disability. It depends on what the plan is, but for me I chose 14 day short term disability. So, if I were to get pregnant, I'd use 80 hours of vacation or sick and then STD would kick in. It's 66.6% of my full time pay BUT I keep the rest of my vacation and sick time.