Absolutley crappy U.S. materinity leave and FMLA... what are my options?

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nancyeab

New member
Hi all! About a year ago I started a new job that I really love. It's for a non-profit with great benefits and a great staff. However, I've just found out I'm pregnant with number 2, and while looking through the employee handbook I was shocked to see the crappy maternity leave option. It says that "Full-Time Employees are eligible to take up to six (6) weeks of unpaid time off following the birth or placement (in the case of adoption) of their child. Best efforts will be made to ensure that an Employee will return to the same or an equivalent position at the end of Maternity/Paternity Leave; however, we do not guarantee that an Employee will return to the same or an equivalent position at the end of Maternity/Paternity Leave."

Is this normal? Legally, don't I have the right to 12 weeks (unpaid) under FMLA? My last job at least offered 6 weeks paid and anything after that was 2/3 paid under short term disability. I'm so incredibly bummed that I may have to spend the next few months looking for another job... I really don't want to leave but how on earth can I afford this? I'd love to hear your experiences before I go talk to my boss. Thanks, all!

Edit: I'm in Colorado.
 
@nancyeab You need 50 employees in a 75 mile radius, and to have worked for the company for a year and have a certain number of hours for FMLA to apply. If you meet those, you can use 6 weeks of fmla for recovery and 6 weeks for bonding time. If your company is too small, you don’t qualify for FMLA.

I know the feeling, I do qualify for fmla but nothing is paid.

Problem is, switching companies pregnant you won’t qualify for fmla no matter where you go, likely won’t qualify for short term disability even if the company provides it (for our policy, it doesn’t cover anything pregnancy related unless the baby is due a year after policy begin date, basically saying there is a 2-3 month window where you don’t want to try). & It would depend on the company whether they’d give a new hire paid maternity leave or even any maternity leave but unfortunately they wouldn’t have to.
 
@gal220gal This is unfortunately the answer I would also give. I actually changed jobs before getting pregnant with #2 in order to get better maternity leave the second time around, but I had to plan well in advance because FMLA isn't very protective. There isn't much to do at this juncture, so the best bet is to try to talk to your boss. Try seeing if part-time after 6 weeks will work for them, or work from home, or any other non-traditional ways to get more bonding time if they won't offer more maternity leave. Good luck.
 
@brendanjamesstephen Agree. I do have a part-time freelance business that I can fall back on too, but God, it's going to be tough with 2 littles. I think I can even work a bit after a month-- I did that last time-- and it should help.

I will be having a c-section so it's possible I can get my doctor to recommend more time off. Might help. Thx!
 
@gal220gal Wow, thank you for this. I had no idea about the 50 employee thing. We have around 30, so I won't be covered. Maybe looking for a different job is a bad idea after all. Thx!
 
@nancyeab Also just a heads up I think technically you have to have been with the company for a year for FMLA to apply so if you find a new job you'd still be a the discretion of the new employer.

It is possible your company will offer more depending on your situation. My company is not FMLA eligible but by bosses did guarantee to hold my job and worked with me to get me some extra time beyond the PTO I had.
 
@livinggrace Can confirm, I’m about to have a baby and my one year mark isn’t until mid August. So by the time my 6 weeks short term disability ends after having baby, I might have a small gap between when FMLA and PFL kick in.
 
@livinggrace Confirming this. I had a baby just over six weeks ago (today is my first day back at work). I started at this job in December, so even if I could have afforded to take more time off I wouldn't have been allowed to, since I "do not qualify" for FMLA. Dumbest thing in the world to have to say, but there you go. I am fortunate that my short term disability still paid out at 60%, since most policies don't pay until they've been in force for 1 year as well.
 
@ido100 Yeah my company isn't subject to FMLA and I found out I was pregnant the week I started so short term disability was pretty useless since it was a preexisting condition. I had a c section but luckily had an easy recovery because I was never going to take 8 weeks. At my 6 week follow up my doctor said I was cleared to work if I wanted. I said "well that's good since I've been back to work for 2 days".
 
@nancyeab I wouldn’t completely give up on looking for a different job! My company provides 6 weeks of paid disability and 8 weeks of paid parental time, all starting day 1. It completely depends on the company! But the larger companies are more likely to have policies like that because they can handle someone being out more easily.
 
@nancyeab So everyone else has covered what the FMLA rules are, but also, this is something that you should talk to your office about! If it's actually a small non-profit, they may not have dealt with many pregnant employees and not updated their policies. Also, if you're a new employee, they likely hired you for a reason and aren't just going to move you out of your role because of maternity leave. Talk to your boss, find out what the actual procedure is like. Because often what they actually do is different from the "mandated" policy.
 
@frelibro Yeah my husband talked to his tiny company last year when we were about to have our second and they went from no paternal leave policy to a week paid and more unpaid if he wanted...it could be way better, but baby steps I guess.
 
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