Maternity Leave in California - Paid By Employer

[valpal1123]

Hi everyone,

I'm due with my first child in a month and I'm lucky to have en employer who provides 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave.

How should I manage California benefits in parallel to that? We are a small tight-knit company so I have the flexibility to choose as long as it's legal.

• Can I apply for SDI for the first 6 weeks and get paid full salary at the same time?
• Can I apply for Paid Family leave afterwards and get paid full salary at the same time?

If the answer to either of them is no, what's the best way to handle this? Can I instead stack them up? e.g. Take SDI for the first 6 weeks, then 12 weeks maternity leave from my company, then PFL?

 

[allib425]

@valpal1123 You should ask your employer. Most want you to get SDI through the state and then they will supplement that income. Also I don’t think you can get SDI if you’re being fully paid by your employer, so no doubling up.

 

[duke845]

@allib425 Agreed, the company will likely top off their pay, why pay the full 100% if the employee has been paying into SDI?

 

[valpal1123]

@allib425 My employer doesn't mind paying both, the question is whether it's legal or not

 

[allib425]

@valpal1123 I don’t think it is, pretty sure that in order to draw on SDI you have to be unpaid or only partially paid by your employer.

 

[ncouraged]

@allib425 This. It’s not legal to double up. CA will require you to pay back income.

 

[laura888]

@valpal1123 You can’t double up. I would try to get SDI for 6 or 8 weeks, 8 weeks of PFL, and then take your 12 weeks of paid Maternity leave from your employer! If not the 8 weeks of PFL can be used anytime within a year.

 

[goldielocks]

@valpal1123 You should definitely ask your employer. Imagine they will want to structure it to minimize the amount they have to pay, but they wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to giving you more time if it doesn’t cost them.

One question is what “fully paid” state leave entails if you are a high earner. In my state at least we get “67% pay”, but that also has a dollar amount cap on it, so it’s really less than half of my actual salary since I make a lot more than average. Your job may be willing to “top up” to make your income equal to normal though. My job’s policy (New York State also has paid family leave) for reference:

First 2 weeks require using banked sick/vacation time due to disability waiting period rules. Not sure what they would do if someone didn’t have any banked time left though, but we get a good amount of PTO.

Do not tap into any state or private insurance benefits at this point.

Weeks 3-6 - New York State disability and private disability insurance combine to pay 60% of salary. My job covers the remainder to give us full salary.

Weeks 7-10 - New York State family leave pays 67% of the lower of the state weekly wage or our personal weekly wage. My job pays the remainder to give us full salary.

Weeks 11-18 - New York State family leave pays 67% of the lower of the state weekly wage or our personal weekly wage. My job does not pay anything.

I think if you have a C-section the disability stretches to weeks 3-8, then push everything else forward as well (weeks 9-12 and weeks 12-20 for last parts).

So I get 18-20 weeks, but with only the first 10-12 fully paid and the last 8 being around $1131 a week.

 

[lsume]

@valpal1123 You can’t take them at the same time and double up on pay. Most companies, when they offer “fully paid leave” mean, in CA, that they will top up your pay to 100% during your SDI and PFL, and then pay you during whatever leave beyond that. However, if your company truely doesn’t require that and is ok negotiating a long leave, you could take them separately:

Pregnancy leave starting at 36 weeks - PDL through SDI (paid at 60% or whatever).

6 weeks PDL through SDI (paid at 60% or whatever it is)
6 weeks PFL - (partial pay at 60% or whatever from the state) job protected through FMLA or CFRA
6 weeks leave - paid by work, job protected through FMLA or CFRA
6 weeks leave - paid by work, not legally job protected but you can negotiate it.

I don’t think it matters whether you do the PFL or the leave paid by your company first, but only the first 12 weeks of leave after disability leave will be job protected by law.

 

[blexxer]

@valpal1123 I had to take two weeks PTO in order for employer to approve my FMLA when I had a baby. The state paid me SDI the same time as the PTO was being paid out. I believe that as soon as you put in the babies date of birth into the SDI when paying for benefits, it will automatically start counting the six weeks from there.

There will be a questionnaire that you fill out every time and it goes something like did you perform any work for your employer to get paid. So technically, you are not performing any work when your employer is providing you with that benefit.

If you are curious if you will be doing any fraud, you can always call their office....although it will take forever to get through. I believe it took me more than a week of trying. 1-877-238-4373