It's just heartbreaking to read these comments. in Canada we get a year off for maternity leave , i couldn't even imgaine going back to work after 6 or even 12 weeks !
My job offers 4 weeks paid maternity leave. Anything after that has to be sick or vacation time or 12 weeks FMLA unpaid. They offer up to 1 year of Family Responsibility Leave which is also unpaid.
My job is covered by FMLA. The first 6 weeks are covered at 80% of my pay because I've been employed there for 5+ years. The 80% kicks in once my sick time is used up. I will then be taking a week of my vacation time for a total of 7 weeks at home with my baby girl. Not ideal, but my husband and I are in the middle of building a home and it isn't practical for me to be unpaid for the remaining 6 weeks of FMLA available to me. America's parental leave policies, or lack thereof, disgust me.
I'm a police officer and while the work schedule is never a 9 to 5 Mon thru friday. I do get 6 weeks paid maternity leave 8 weeks if it a c section. In also lucky enough to have saved enough hours on the books to take paid days off that I have accumulated over my years. I can shorten my work week to 3 days on 3 days off. However I do have a government job and I'm blessed that they offer maternity leave (paid) but I suppose it goes with the bad of the job as well
I'm also a Canadian. I think of all the American mamas heading back and feel for them. You should have far more time.
I agree. From Canada as well. I was put on bedrest a few weeks early, was given paid sick time, plus ei sick leave, then my vay-cay time. Now I'm off for 52 weeks paid 55% of my wage, with my employer paying an additional 20% top up. And after my 52 weeks off, I'll have accumulated another 3 weeks of paid vay-cay.
At the end of it, will be getting 59 weeks paid for.
Reading this post really makes me practice and acknowledge gratitude for where I live and the situation I'm in.
All mamas should no less than this and spend time with your new babes.
I'm in California and feel very fortunate. We get 6 weeks disability (8 weeks for c-section) and then 6 weeks of baby bonding and the state pays 55% of your salary. I'm also fortunate that I have a decent amount of vacation saved and that my work is pretty generous with vacation hours, so I'll use a couple of weeks at the end. My boss is very understanding and has offered my a flex schedule when I return, so I plan on working from home part of the time at first, while I adjust to my new role as working mom. Finally, as soon as we found out I was pregnant my husband and I started saving as much as possible, knowing that I would only get 55% of my pay and also knowing that there would be a lot of expenses.
I cant believe how poor mat leave is in America! Good job mummas, i dont know how you do it!! Here in Australia, most people are entitled to 18 weeks paid parental leave from tge government. Its a set rate, not means tested, and works out to around 70% of my income normally. Employers are required to hold your position for you, though unpaid, for 12 months in most cases. Some workplaces might offer maternity leave, though my workplace doesnt. Any leave before bubs arrival (ill be taking 4 weeks) is unpaid.
I'm very lucky to live in a state (CA) that offers new moms up to six weeks maternity leave through state disability at 55% pay. We also have FMLA which offers an additional six weeks (which is also available to dads) at 55%. My company also gives two weeks fully paid, PLUS I had my baby about a month before Christmas, so I get two weeks off for that fully paid (I'm a teacher so everyone gets two paid weeks off then). In total I'm taking almost ten weeks, four fully paid and six at 55% and my husband is taking 6 at 55%. We are very lucky.
The only hard thing is that they used my salary from the previous year to calculate the disability payments and I made significantly less because I was a student teacher. Still, I know we are luckier than most.
I got 6 weeks paid 70% and 6 weeks unpaid, and it's rough. My son is still up 1-2 times a night 4/7 nights a week due to a persistent ear infection. I'm tired. And some days at work I make stupid errors out of exhaustion. I'm broke from being unpaid, this was a surprise addition to our family of 5, otherwise I'd have saved vac time and more $$$ and my credit is taking a hit as i struggle to get my bills paid on time with my 12 weeks of decreased or no pay. I've been back to work for 3 weeks and had to take 2 sick days for my baby already and had to send him back to daycare sooner than I was ready because I had to use all my sick time before I could get the remaining 6 weeks of STD. I was a good employees once, now I suck. The US needs to get with the times. My baby still needs his mama. And his mama so needs time to adjust.
Im taking 10 weeks leave. 4 weeks were paid 100% because I've been with the company for 4 years. 4 weeks was short term disability paid 60% and the last 2 were pto, all under fmla to protect my job. It's not bad, but still a lot of room for improvement. My husband, however can only use vacation time and fmla if wanted. He took 3 weeks which included some holidays. In my opinion, dads should be able to take the same amount of time that mom's need to recover. It was hard after he went back to work when I was still recovering from a c-section. I was doing things I was told I shouldn't during recovery just to get baby settled, and had extra bleeding because of it. If he was home to help, I feel I could have had a better recovery. Plus, the first couple weeks it seemed the baby only wanted me and was nursing constantly, so he didn't get as much time to hold and bond as he would have in later weeks.
Companies are now using more and more contingent workers (aka- temps). This is what I am...a temp scientist at a Pharma company. Since I'm not permanent, not only do I not get any paid leave, I'm also not guaranteed a job if I leave. Luckily, for me, my current temp position is 1.5 yrs & requires a lot of training, so they do want me to return after leave. But, I have to take the time completely unpaid. I had to save up thousands of dollars to afford the time off. I'm taking 13 weeks.
I just started a new job 4 days after we found out...it's a small company so FMLA doesn't apply. They have an open vacation/work from home policy but I won't know about Mat leave until I tell them (waiting til 14wks) I'm nervous but hoping for the best. They are really generous about stuff, so hopefully this will go well.
TW: 1 infant loss 8/17: Our daughter was born 8/18: Our daughter kicked open heart surgery ass 2/19: We lost our son to Prader-Willi/Paradoxical Vocal Cord/ Noonans at 6wks old 4/26/2020: EDD for baby #3!!!
My employer has less than 50 employees so there is no FMLA requirement. I have one work week of pay but will take 8 weeks off. I saved for that as well as the $7000 I will be paying to the hospital so it isn't a problem.
I had to request maternity leave 30days in advance which left me wondering....when is a good time to take off without drastically effecting my pay. Well, I set myself up for June 1st with a due date of June 15th. Didn't get a chance to enjoy my time off being pregnant because I went in on May 17th and delivered on May 18th. I didn't have any paid time to cover me, but I am able to put in for up to 4years but I only put in for 6months. Meanwhile, without pto to cover me I relied on my disability insurance that I pay for seperately. I had to wait for my enployer to complete paperwork which took a month because nobody responded to me right away. Btw, I am still waiting, but fortunately I qualified for 10 weeks of disability pay from my employer @ 200 a week which took 3weeks for approval. Bills are piling up and were piling up prior to because I couldn't work much due to my high risk pregnancy. I took a drastic pay cut, but it's worth it when bringing forth new life, honestly maternity leave should be taken more seriously and women should be provided with more benefits.
A combination of vacation time and short term disability for 6 weeks. Then because my dd is in the NICU my HR Dept was able to give people in my office the option of donating vacation time to me so I could continue to visit her, and maybe have time with her at home if she gets out soon enough. I got an additional 4 weeks. With the holidays coming up, that's actually 5 weeks.
Wow this is crazy and so inconsiderate that HR wouldn't just allow you to have more vacation rather than taking it from others
My work shuts down from December through March as we work in the tourist industry - I'll be missing out on working April, May and part of June as my employer didn't want me working while super pregnant and my 2nd degree tearing will require at least 6 weeks off. It's a small business, so I won't be paid at all during this time. My husband has worked at a large company for well over a year, but as they changed who does the pay roll in August, he didn't get any paid leave and won't get any vacation time until January.
I got 10 weeks paid leave. I saved up my vacation of 4 weeks and my 10 days of sick. Plus I get to work from home 1 day a week. And it’s still not enough.
It's just heartbreaking to read these comments. in Canada we get a year off for maternity leave , i couldn't even imgaine going back to work after 6 or even 12 weeks !
And now we get 18 months if we want it. We just get our twelve month income spread over 18 months instead. I can't imagine why the US can't change their mat leave system.
I recently moved to a new town and had a day job but didn’t accumulate enough hours to qualify for paid maternity leave. I ended up starting a baby accessory & maternity business in hopes I could make some income while I raise my baby!
My employer does 6-8 weeks. 6 weeks for natural birth, 8 weeks for cesarean. It goes in as short term disability- the first and last weeks are unpaid/pto, the rest is paid at 80% with pto supplemented (assuming you have any). I was given the option to take an additional 4 weeks as FMLA unpaid, fortunately I was able to afford that. I was supposed to return to work this week, but have now been furloughed for 8 weeks due to covid, (not really maternity related, just happened to fall at a time that basically extended my leave).
My husbands employer offered no paternity leave options. He was only able to remain at home with me until his pto ran out.
I thought my maternity leave options were bad, but reading this thread has made me feel very fortunate. I can't believe how poorly some employers are treating new moms/dads!
I believe that mothers should be entitled to more than two or three months of leave, as well as paternal leave. It would be fantastic if you could stay for a year!
Re: Thoughts on maternity leave?
I was put on bedrest a few weeks early, was given paid sick time, plus ei sick leave, then my vay-cay time. Now I'm off for 52 weeks paid 55% of my wage, with my employer paying an additional 20% top up.
And after my 52 weeks off, I'll have accumulated another 3 weeks of paid vay-cay.
At the end of it, will be getting 59 weeks paid for.
Reading this post really makes me practice and acknowledge gratitude for where I live and the situation I'm in.
All mamas should no less than this and spend time with your new babes.
Finally, as soon as we found out I was pregnant my husband and I started saving as much as possible, knowing that I would only get 55% of my pay and also knowing that there would be a lot of expenses.
The only hard thing is that they used my salary from the previous year to calculate the disability payments and I made significantly less because I was a student teacher. Still, I know we are luckier than most.
I've been back to work for 3 weeks and had to take 2 sick days for my baby already and had to send him back to daycare sooner than I was ready because I had to use all my sick time before I could get the remaining 6 weeks of STD.
I was a good employees once, now I suck. The US needs to get with the times. My baby still needs his mama. And his mama so needs time to adjust.
1 infant loss
8/17: Our daughter was born
8/18: Our daughter kicked open heart surgery ass
2/19: We lost our son to Prader-Willi/Paradoxical Vocal Cord/ Noonans at 6wks old
4/26/2020: EDD for baby #3!!!
My husbands employer offered no paternity leave options. He was only able to remain at home with me until his pto ran out.
I thought my maternity leave options were bad, but reading this thread has made me feel very fortunate. I can't believe how poorly some employers are treating new moms/dads!