OPINIONS WANTED - evaluating this maternity leave policy (in the U.S.)

[yarnknitting]

I am about to accept a new job and their maternity/parental leave policy is a little complicated. Basically you are entitled to time off for pregnancy and time off for child bonding but you don’t necessarily get paid the entire time. So pregnancy/disability you get 8 weeks of pay (part of it is paid by state of California and part of it is paid by the employer). For bonding/caregiving (assuming you are primary caregiver), you get 4 weeks paid time off if you have been there less than a year and 8 weeks paid time off if you’ve been there over a year as of the date of the baby’s birth. You can also take an additional 4 weeks of leave but it is unpaid. At least that’s how I understand it. So it isn’t the best, but it isn’t terrible. Thoughts?

 

[timotheous]

@yarnknitting If I read it correctly, that is 16 weeks paid after 1 year of employment? That sounds generous to me by US standards.

For myself personally, I'd go with anything partially paid over the standard 12 weeks FML if I liked the job itself and the other benefits were good enough.

 

[yarnknitting]

@timotheous yes you get 16 weeks paid after 1 year of employment and i think you can also take 4 more weeks unpaid but can use sick time for 2 weeks of that.

 

[vickig]

@yarnknitting This sounds about as good as it gets in the US.

 

[capestorm]

@vickig I was thinking the same thing. And then I though, how absolutely horrible and disgusting it is the way we treat new parents.

 

[icecream543791]

@yarnknitting From someone in the U.S. who got zero paid days of maternity leave other than whatever PTO I had left over, this sounds pretty darn good for the U.S.!

 

[samkruger]

@icecream543791 Same. Zero paid time off and a change in policy when I was 37 weeks pregnant that resulted in me paying a total of $1200 for the months of Nov. and Dec. for my insurance.

I am allowed up to a year off unpaid though, and they have to hold my job. So that’s cool.

 

[icecream543791]

@samkruger That’s the sad part—I still had it better off than most because my job would give me as much unpaid time as I wanted.

 

[samkruger]

@icecream543791 Same here! The system sucks.

 

[sandraovercomer]

@yarnknitting I'd say that's pretty good for the US. It's definitely more than I got. Can you use vacation too?

 

[yarnknitting]

@sandraovercomer it is a pretty senior role and the vacation policy is "take what you need with your supervisor's permission," which means you have a lot of flexibility to take vacation but you also don't accrue vacation time. I can use accrued sick time, though.

 

[jesuschain]

@yarnknitting If they're stacking policies that sounds great for the US. But you might want to clarify if that's the case or if they are concurrent. My job offers 12 weeks paid, but that's regardless of if you take it during pregnancy or after the baby is born. I originally thought I would be able to stack pregnancy disability and bonding, but that was not the case.

 

[yarnknitting]

@jesuschain it is separate, not concurrent. like you could take 8 weeks disability, go back to work for 1 month, and then take 8 weeks for bonding.

 

[pofo2020]

@yarnknitting My company has that policy. You can use your bonding leave anytime during the first year. I actually had a coworker who had hers still when COVID hit and she was able to use her bonding leave when her son was around 5 months and she had to pull him from daycare.

 

[isaiah9six]

@yarnknitting So, you get 12 weeks paid (fully paid?) if you work there

 

[diananwshiro]

@isaiah9six I'm Canadian but I live in NY now and quite a few of my friends had a lot of credit card debt after their 1 year maternity leave. I don't think people realize the financial burden it is to take that year off with the pay cut. Sure some people save on childcare too, but there are definitely trade offs.

 

[sweetsunday]

@yarnknitting So I want to point out that a lot of that is due to CA paid leave policy and what a difference it makes to have state friendly family leave policies. I think only recently have other states (mostly blue) have started expanding their leave policies and some like NY I think exceed CA’s. And correct me if I’m wrong but no red state even comes close.

Anyways your employer does go a little above and beyond by extending the mandatory 6-8 weeks of disability and 8 weeks of paid bonding time by offering 4 additional weeks, but only a little above since it’s not paid. But I think overall it’s def better than what most of the country get but pretty common for California

 

[katrina2017]

@yarnknitting Like you said it's not the the best but it's something. Make sure you read all the fine writing.

I messed up on my maternity leave from my job. It said Ft and Pt can have it if they've been there for a certain amount of time. I was pt. I'm like great, that money will help even though I'm part time but I qualify. Awesome.

What I didn't understand was maternity leave was not automatically paid. I never did it before and no one said anything. I had no idea.

So in the invisible writing I some how missed.... It said somewhere that PT's DO NOT GET PAID.

Boy was I heartbroken. And my bf was just as mad. Said I didn't read. I did. Argues that's it's there but I didn't read.

Anyway, read the fine print.

My job was (not to me) paid 6 weeks leave but for 3 months, your job is protected but unpaid besides the 6 weeks.

 

[rockmountman]

@yarnknitting That’s better than mine was. Pretty good for the U.S. the only thing you might want to clarify is if bonding leave has to be used all at once or if it could be broken up to come back part time and ease back into work. Some employers like this as you get back to work sooner and can keep up with your weekly tasks again just don’t have bandwidth for projects. For me coming back part time was great. Great way to ease back into work and good for baby to get used to daycare.

 

[stancet]

@yarnknitting That's better then the maternity leave I had working for county level government in the US. We were allowed leave for however long FMLA provided. We are only paid if we have stored sick and vacation time which we can use. I had 4 weeks of sick time and 5 weeks vacation. We could also take unpaid leave but we could definitely not live with no pay.

Oh you also go an extra week or two if you had a c-section because then you could apply for short term disability.