For working moms...

[barkley]

fmla only provides that you are able to take the time off-not that you receive any pay for it. it can also vary depending on your status with an employer (less than full time can result in prorated time mandated).

i worked for government during both pregnancies-no paid leave for maternity. you could receive (as can every woman with a work force connection in california) 6 weeks of state disability insurance (but at the time i had my kids this capped at about $336.00 per week which was less than a third of my pay- and state disability requires you exhaust all of your sick leave pay first-and it has a seven day wait period) for a delivery with no complications. beyond the six weeks we could (with advance approval) use accrued vacation, comp. time or take an unpaid leave of absence. california also enacted something in the last couple of years that allowed for parents with a work force connection to get short term disability payments if they are needed to stay home for the care of a family member or following the birth of a child (so if mom had a difficult delivery the doctor could do paperwork for dad to stay at home and care for her and child-up to 6 weeks max i think).

people got to be pretty creative in working the system where i was employed-they would get the doctor to write them off to part-time the last week or so before the date they could qualify for full time state disability so the reduced hour days would eat up the waiting period (and they experienced no loss in pay cuz the state rate covered their hourly loss dollar for dollar). they would take the 6 weeks paid for by state disability and tag on vacation time and comp. time so they could continue with pay. the big problem we ran into was a policy within our county that no position would be held beyond 89 days of absence (for any reason other than workman's comp)-so if you went beyond your 89 days off (it was calendar not work days) you still had a job but it could be in any office in any department.

 

[zalansky]

I work for Travelers Insurance (well at least for another 4 days I do but that's another thread) so we are pretty large as well. With DD that was born this past September, I took 12 weeks under FMLA, which you should be able to do with Geico as well. From my understanding this is required by law of companies that have 50 or more employees....of my 12 weeks, 8 were paid under short term disability - the standard is 6 weeks but I had a c-section so I got an extra 2 weeks, and the remaining 4 weeks I took unpaid. I think you need to go back to HR and re-visit this with them. It sounds like someone is misinformed....do you have an HR number you can call with questions in their home office? Travelers has this, as did Progressive when I worked for them as well. Good luck and try to get your answers, no need to fret at this happy time.

 

[Kimberle]

In CT, you get 16 weeks, as long as your company meets the over 50 employees "rule" and your position is not "critical" to your company (like a Presidents, etc.). When I had my dd, it fell under short term disability. I took 16 weeks, and got paid 65% of my salary for 6 weeks. I took the rest as unpaid. I could have used my PTO time, but I wanted to hang on to it as dd was born in March.

 

[Pollito916]

Thanks for all the replies. I checked the gov website that was in dmslush's link and it definately said 12 weeks.

My company is definately over 50 employees. I work for GEICO and they employ over 20,000 associates throughout the US.

I think I'm going to print the information from that website and show it to my hr department. They were really mean to me. They said we only get 6 weeks from fmla and that it is all unpaid. They also said that if I have any sick time or vacation time going into my 6 weeks that I would have to use that at the same time as my fmla. in other words if I have 4 weeks of vacation/sick time then I would get 4 paid weeks off and 2 upaid weeks; but still only 6 weeks total.

It just doesn't seem right to me...

I work for the competition, and we get 6 weeks paid, then 6 at 50% pay. Our parent company gets 12 weeks at 100%. They share in our profits, we should share in their benefits. Anyway, what you HR dept told you definitely doesn't seem right. On top of the 12 week fmla, you would think a company that large would have better benefits.

 

[summerrluvv]

In Ontario, Canada we get 52 wks paid. It's called Maternity/Parental Leave, covered by our Employment Insurance. It's 55% of our wages. I'm off now til November 14, 2006 and delivered Dean on November 14, 2005.

I'm glad I live here!

Marilynn

I'm moving to Canada

 

[lilostitch]

I work for a large school district in Georgia, which of course is mostly made of of women. The maternity leave here STINKS as well, which is so ironic since such a large percentage of the employees are women.

We get 6 weeks, which eats up all sick days (if you have them). You get them paid if you have the days, if not, you get a VERY small disability amount. It is SO SMALL, that if you have your insurance through your job instead of your husband's, you may wind up writing the school district a check after the month you are out!!!

You can take up to 12 weeks, but no matter how many days you have of sick leave, they will only pay you for 6 weeks. Of course, they will still take away the 12 weeks worth of days. How messed up is that?!?

It disgusts me.

 

[Miss Park Avenue]

The company I worked for at the time gave you two weeks paid before your due date and six weeks after. If you went three weeks past your due date. You got five weeks before and six after no matter what. One girl was POSITIVE she would go early and got somewhere like a month and a half before and her six weeks afterward.

I got totally ripped off. My water broke in the office and had my baby that night (9 years ago today...come to think of it). I got my six weeks. Nothing more. I was going to be a SAHM anyway, but what a bummer...

 

[DMickey28]

I am curious about this as well. DH and I are trying for our first. I, also, work for a large insurance company. Our leave is the basic 12 week FMLA, however I am not sure about the paid vs. unpaid. I have a feeling it is completely unpaid. It's a great company in some ways but very odd in others. We bought out another Insurance company last year and they had a great Maternity program. My co-worker is due in a few weeks, 2/8, with her second and with the first she was an employee of the company we bought. They mad her take the month off before her due date paid and then she got 6 months leave... all paid. I should check this out, I'll ask her!!

So on this thread we have an ex-progressive employee (I worked with them too in RI as a claims Adj.), GEICO, Traveler's... anyone else? I work for Liberty Mutual.

 

[indigoxtreme]

You young ones have it lucky. We had no leave and no disability back in the 70's. Pregancy could not go under Disability for any reason. But for the OP check your health benefit hand book, most large companies have it completely outlined. Don't take anything verbal as gospel, make them show you in black and white from the handbook. It can vary, but most get at least 12 weeks, which includes your short term disability, so if you do not have benefits with your company, you may not have any paid leave etc. They usually spell out normal delivery and C-Section benefis. So many women get caught in the trap that they have benefits with spouse and forget that they can sign up for short term and long term disability without the group health insurance.

In either case good luck to you and your family...

 

[Ava83]

I forgot to add the big old company I work for...before you go off to have baby, you can take medical if you so choose. So if I was to get a note from the Dr 4 weeks before, I could take it.

I didn't I just took a week, but that was cause I get bored real easy.

 

[slo]

I work for a very small company and they gave me 4 weeks of paid maternity leave and then I used my 2 weeks vacation after that to give me a total of 6 weeks paid.

 

[mum4jenn]

had dd when I was working at Publix and I was able to use ALL of my sick leave that I had built up as well as pool my vacation time. I had to go on maternity leave early and would have used up all of my time BEFORE I had the baby but they also let me yurn in less hours each week in order to stretch out my time AND get a paycheck each week. For example...I was a 40 hour employee bu I think I was able to turn in 20 or 25 hours each weekand therefore stretch an additional 6 weeks into around 10 weeks after the baby.

 

[disneychrista]

I didn't even realize that company's even gave paid time off for pregnancy. Do they do that for other types of medical leaves?

We get up to 4 months unpaid for any type of medical leave, including pregnancy. Our union employees get up to 1 year for medical, also unpaid.

 

[aprilgail2]

Ours is all unpaid.....BUT we can use our sick time, personal days, vacation time, etc...I stopped working Oct. 31st and had my daughter Nov 4th...I stayed out for 8 weeks (c-section) and used my accumulated sick days to be paid for the whole time before and after the birth and then took a few more weeks unpaid FMLA. By then I was really itching to get out of the house and back out into the adult world so I was certainly ready to get back to work.

 

[miss missy]

Mine is 6 weeks paid, then you can take up to ONE YEAR from birth unpaid. You can also work part time up to ONE YEAR as well. I believe the policy is the same for the father. You can take your vacation time too. If a DR write you out before birth, that is under disablity and doesn't count on your year... only from the birth does.

 

[becka]

Pregnancy at my company (a smaller regional insurance company) is covered by short term disability. Depending on how long you have worked there you get somewhere between 1 week - 8 weeks (I think that is correct) of full pay and more weeks (up to about 6 months depending on length of service) at 60% pay. After your short term disability you can take FMLA unpaid but you have to exhaust all of your vacation, personal and sick leave first.

With DS I had 8 weeks paid under Short Term Disability (c-section) then I had another 2 weeks vacation and I took 2 more weeks unpaid for the full 12 weeks. Short Term Disability has to be authorized by your doctor. With DD my doctor authorized 8 weeks (also c-section) and I went back after that. I wanted to take the extra 4 weeks but with two little kids I knew I would need my personal leave and sick leave for the remainder of the year (DD was born in January). I wish I could have taken another 4 weeks unpaid without having to use up all of my other time off.

 

[lilostitch]

Oh, I forgot this wonderful gem from my employers (large school district in GA). If your husband works for your county as well, he can't take any paid leave (which comes out of sick days) because it counts away from his wife's leave. A few years ago I worked with a man who's wife had a preemie. He couldn't take any paternity leave that didn't count against her maternity leave. He just had to lie and call in sick a few days to spend time with them. WTH? Our country needs to step it up when it comes to maternity/paternity leave.

I found this quote from NBC (it aired on the Today Show):

"The U.S. and Australia are the only industrialized countries that don't provide paid leave for mothers nationally but even Australian moms have a year of job protection."
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University: "We are a disaster. We are about 162nd out of 168 countries in terms of the kind of leave that we offer to parents who have newborns."

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Where I worked, we got our FMLA leave up to the maximum. We used our short term disability for 60% pay for the time up to 6 weeks (but only paid for 5 as the first week didn't count b/c STD doesn't kick in until you were out for a week. If you had an PL you could use that. As an hourly employee, I didn't have any at that time (i tis accrued)--but a salaried employee would (not accrued).

6 weeks for "regular" birth and 8 weeks for C-section. The logic is you medically aren't permitted to work so their coverage covers that.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Thanks for all the replies. I checked the gov website that was in dmslush's link and it definately said 12 weeks.

My company is definately over 50 employees. I work for GEICO and they employ over 20,000 associates throughout the US.

I think I'm going to print the information from that website and show it to my hr department. They were really mean to me. They said we only get 6 weeks from fmla and that it is all unpaid. They also said that if I have any sick time or vacation time going into my 6 weeks that I would have to use that at the same time as my fmla. in other words if I have 4 weeks of vacation/sick time then I would get 4 paid weeks off and 2 upaid weeks; but still only 6 weeks total.

It just doesn't seem right to me...

The latter part is correct--once you are out on FMLA..even if you can get vacation or sick leave to cover it, it can count agianst the total.

However, they would be violating federal law in limiting you to 6 weeks.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We are a large company (over 20,000 worldwide) and you have to be here over a year to qualify for FMLA. I think it is a fair policy, but I am a little upset that I have to use up all my vacation days. What happens if something comes up during the year that I need to take off for.....oh well, I guess I will just have to call in sick then. I don't usually condone doing that, but they kind of put new mothers in a bind with that and I don't want to sacrifice my time with a new baby.

In the defense of the policy--if an employee was caring for an ailing relative, they would be in the same bind.

I wish our society had a more uniform way to treat new mothers--but FMLA protects more than just those.