Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 16:52:47 GMT -5
My wife cousin's that is due next month confided in her that she will have to return to work sooner than she wanted becayse since she is somewhat new to her job she hasn't accrued enough time and while she could stay longer it will have to be unpaid leave but they need her paycheck (husband hasn't work in 3 years).
I am a bit lost because one of her reasons for leaving her last job was because she used up all her vacation/time off for her wedding last october and they wouldn't allow her any more time. Also she hated the job. So she took this job when she was already past 6 months pregnant (so her employer knew, kinda had to miss) for that and also a promotion aka more money.
But isn't maternity leave seperate from vacation/time off? My wife and I have aflac for both short/long term disability and maternity leave is covered (Short term up to 90 days and long term afterwards if required) so I don't think she would need to use her vacation/personal time when we do decide to have a child.
Or is every job different when it comes to it?
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myrrh
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Post by myrrh on Jun 18, 2011 17:16:05 GMT -5
FMLA applies to workplaces with over 50 employees and to workers who have been employed for a year or more and work over a certain number of hours a year (dont remember the exact number, though it's more than 20 and less than 40 hrs per week.) If you are eligible you can take 12 weeks unpaid leave, or if you have sick and vacation accrued, use that. Most companies dont have separate paid maternity that I am aware of.
If you have short term disability insurance you can also use that during your 12 weeks, though at my work you can only get 60% of your usual pay though ST disability and make up the rest with sick or annual leave. Also ST disability doesn't last 12 weeks, at my work it's 6 weeks if vaginal birth and 8 weeks if cesarian birth...one of the very few perks of a c-section.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 17:25:59 GMT -5
Maternity leave can work a little different depending on the company. In general, most companies give 6 weeks short-term disability leave for a vaginal birth and 8 weeks short-term disability leave for a c-section. That leave may be a full or partial pay. (When I was on leave with a different employer than I'm at now, I only got 2 weeks at 60 percent pay.) Then there's Family Medical Leave Act, which you can take for up to 6 weeks, but that's unpaid. And very small companies don't have to allow FMLA leave. Some companies require you to use all over your vacation and sick time during your leave. ETA: Ooops I just realized I repeated a lot of what myrrhcat said. Sorry.
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myrrh
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Post by myrrh on Jun 18, 2011 17:40:13 GMT -5
"Some companies require you to use all over your vacation and sick time during your leave." Yeah that finally changed at my work about a year ago. I always thought that was an incredibly stupid rule...what happens when you use all your leave during FMLA time, come back to work, and you or your kid gets sick and you have no leave? BTW no worries kgb.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 17:56:03 GMT -5
That happens a lot, I think. I tried to be very practical about the timing of my last pregnancy. My maternity leave ended Dec. 27, so I only had a few days to go before the new year when my vacation and sick time started over. And I actually used almost all of my time before my leave. (There were several other practical reasons for my timing as well.) We had saved up 12 weeks of my salary, and I wanted to take as much time as possible. I really hated my job.
I'm not sure how things work with the vacation time at my new employer. They have a much better short-term leave pay than the last place. And I have more vacation time, so I'm definitely going to use some of it to increase the amount of paid time off I have when we have #2.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 18:03:21 GMT -5
When i worked it was take sick time/personal time... or unpaid leave... that was it... no disability. I didn't think disability covered all pregnancies? I thought only, sometimes, Cesarean
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 18:12:46 GMT -5
Our disability definitely covers birth. This thread inspired me to check my company's policies. They have a really generous short-term disability policy. It looks like I would get 4 weeks of the 6 weeks at full-pay. I do have to exhaust my vacation and personal time as part of the FMLA, but that will give me more paid time.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Jun 18, 2011 18:22:49 GMT -5
It does depend on the company. My employer offers 12 weeks, fully paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave. It doesn't come from sick leave, vacation leave or disability.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 18:24:22 GMT -5
Back in the olden days when I was sprouting babies, as soon as it was apparent that you were pregnant, you were out the door (maybe so as not to offend anybody...after all, they could tell by looking what you'd been doing!). If you were a decent employee and eligible for rehire, and if there was a job available after baby was born, you might get it. There was no guarantee that your job would still be there or that there'd be any job for you at all.
Back in those days, too, if you were of child-bearing age, your income wasn't counted when applying for a mortgage.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 18:25:35 GMT -5
Wow!!! That is practically unheard of these days. ETA: I guess I shouldn't say "these days" because it's not like it was ever like that. Look at Miss R's post. It's just practically unheard of ... unless you live in some European countries.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 18:43:02 GMT -5
I was going to ask if gooddec was in Europe...
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Jun 18, 2011 18:47:36 GMT -5
Nope, I'm at a Fortune 500 based in the USA. It is amazingly generous and I'm looking forward to finally being able to use it.
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telephus44
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Post by telephus44 on Jun 18, 2011 20:40:37 GMT -5
I think the only thing you are guaranteed is 12 weeks unpaid under FMLA (assuming you meet FMLA requirements). I have worked for several companies and the larger ones tend to offer better maternity policies.
My current company does not have one (even though they issued a new handbook for the first time in 15 years a few months ago). I have a co-worker who had 2 children while working there, and the first time no one knew what to do so she got 8 weeks at full pay. The second time they tried to give her the "you need to take it as short term disability, with a 4 week wait period and only pays at 60% of your check" line and she pointed out that they gave her 8 weeks of full pay before, so she got it again. We are currently TTC so I plan on asking for the same thing when the time comes. Of course, we could also make it 12 weeks without my paycheck if we had to.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 20:45:17 GMT -5
telephus, your company needs a policy. They're setting themselves up for big trouble if they give different women different benefits, pay, leave, etc. for maternity leave.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2011 6:16:43 GMT -5
My company gives 6-8 weeks leave depending on the birth and what the doctor mandates. Since I've been at the company for almost 3 years I get that leave at full pay. I'm also taking FMLA after that at 2/3 pay (NJ law that passed in 2009) for 6 weeks. IMO 6 weeks is not long enough.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Jun 20, 2011 7:08:34 GMT -5
My company offers 4 weeks maternity and 1 week paternity, separate from leave. I get 240 hours which is separate.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2011 7:33:55 GMT -5
My company gives 6-8 weeks leave depending on the birth and what the doctor mandates. This is typical- the actual permitted time out is based on your medical condition (which is why I refuse to call it maternity leave- you get zip if you adopt). Then whatever sick-leave rules would apply to a guy who's out 6-8 weeks after he breaks his ankle skiing apply to you, too. Do doctors still certify you as disabled 4 weeks before the due date, too? I had DS in NJ in 1984 and could have taken off 4 weeks before and 6 after at full pay because I'd been with the company a long time. I thought it was silly to claim I was "disabled" the 4 weeks before since I was riding my bike 10 miles a day after I got home, so I kept working, but did stay home the 6 weeks after.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 20, 2011 7:40:57 GMT -5
My company is way over 50 employees so I am eligable for 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave. If I have vacation/sick time I am allowed/required to use that up and I can use up to 8 weeks of saved vacation/sick/floating holiday pay, the remaining four would be unpaid.
I still accured 0.3 hours of leave even while I was off, it accures every payday. So my pool was low but I am now back to almost a week of vacation and I have a week and a half of sick time available to me. It keeps going till I get to 250 hours and then it's capped.
No disability for maternity leave. I don't know if it ever kicks in but I know I have to exhaust all my sick time, all my vacation time AND the last four weeks of FMLA before I am eligable for any other type of leave.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Jun 20, 2011 7:57:13 GMT -5
I'm honestly not sure what our maternity policy is... I should check on that. I know our employees are typically out for 12 weeks, but not sure if this is unpaid, using vacation time, or what.
We do accrue 1 vacation day and 3/4 sick days per month (no limit), so assuming I wait another 2-3 years before having a kid, I should be able to use banked time.
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alabamagal
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Post by alabamagal on Jun 20, 2011 8:10:07 GMT -5
Pregnancy is supposed to be covered as a disability if your company provides short term disability coverage. If you no short term disability coverage, you are out of luck in terms of pay (same as for any other medical issue). The general rule that doctors use is that you are unable to work for 6 weeks after normal delivery, 8 weeks c-section. If your company normally pays for short term medical disabilities, you get the pay (100% or whatever the policy says) for that period of time. FMLA leave is unpaid and only requires that your job is given back to you. FMLA only applies if certain requirements are met (your time on job and employer with 50 or more employees). Some companies can have more generous policies, but it is at their discretion and not required by law.
Disablity before delivery should only be granted if there is a condition that prevents you physically from working. I worked past my due date for all 3 kids (~20 years ago), even though my job requires quite a bit of being on my feet.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2011 8:11:55 GMT -5
It was not hard at all to cover maternity leave for the first one... but the second one would have been very difficult. Somehow... once I had a child, i never was able to build up sick/vacation days quite the same again... luckily i was teaching and the second was born end of June... I took September off without pay, but that was all...
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jun 20, 2011 8:43:18 GMT -5
I'm self employed, so I don't have a leave policy. I kept getting a draw from the business, but I also worked from home while on leave. My secretary would come to my house and we'd go over what had to be done, and she'd leave me work to do. She'd come back the next week and do the same thing.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Jun 20, 2011 9:14:04 GMT -5
It depends on the company. I work for a company 5 people (6 when I had DS). I had no short term disability (by choice, every policy I looked at required you to use all of your PTO before the STD kicked in). I had the option of how long I wanted to take off and if I wanted to you use my PTO. I opted not to use my PTO since it was by calender year and DS was born in January. I took 3 full weeks off and then went back to work part time since DH is a SAHD and worked my way up to full time by the time DS was 7 weeks old. Our PTO does not roll over. It is a use it or lose it policy based on the calender year.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Jun 20, 2011 9:16:32 GMT -5
Okay, those of you who have had kids - what is the absolute earliest you feel you could have returned to work? Is 6 weeks sufficient? Muttley, 3 weeks is amazing.
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telephus44
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Post by telephus44 on Jun 20, 2011 9:19:03 GMT -5
telephus, your company needs a policy. They're setting themselves up for big trouble if they give different women different benefits, pay, leave, etc. for maternity leave. No kidding! And they had 3 women pregnant when they updated the handbook. You would think that it would have occurred to SOMEONE.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Jun 20, 2011 9:20:35 GMT -5
midwest - I could not have done it full time at 3 weeks. Physically I felt great my entire pregnancy and after having DS. I never felt like I gave birth to an 8 pound baby. I also have an amazing LO who readily nursed and went back and forth between the bottle and breast without a problem. I also could not have done it without DH at home. Those 3 weeks at home all I had to do was nurse DS and eat (Ok a little bit more than that), but I didn't have to do any of the household chores. DH and I ended up splitting them pretty evenly.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jun 20, 2011 9:23:50 GMT -5
Okay, those of you who have had kids - what is the absolute earliest you feel you could have returned to work? Is 6 weeks sufficient? Muttley, 3 weeks is amazing. 5 years. No, seriously, about 10 weeks, but I had c-sections.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Jun 20, 2011 9:26:08 GMT -5
It really does depend on the company and how your state passed it's own FMLA laws.
For example, I didn't look into the short disability stuff because I'm permitted to bank Sick Leave, up to 960 hrs. So I ended up doing 2 sets of paperwork, 6 weeks of FMLA for my health and 6 weeks of FMLA for my newborn. I got full pay for the entire time and continued to accrue vacation, additional sick leave, paid holidays, pension benefits, etc. while out. And I didn't have to touch my VAC time, so I still had time for vacations and sick baby days. I did this for both kids. And I still had SL time available when I came back...
State law here is that federal FMLA must be followed and if the employer and the employee want to work something out to pay for the time used, it's between them to determine if it's going to be SL, STD, Vac, CompTime, regular pay, or whatever.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2011 9:27:25 GMT -5
It depends. Could do? ... Well if you had to, i guess you could do about anything.
Son was 8-9 weeks off. Daughter was 12-14.... but she had a cleft palate and was difficult to feed, and i didn't feel comfortable before then leaving her with anyone.....
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jun 20, 2011 9:28:54 GMT -5
It depends. Could do? ... Well if you had to, i guess you could do about anything. Son was 8-9 weeks off. Daughter was 12-14.... but she had a cleft palate and was difficult to feed, and i didn't feel comfortable before then leaving her with anyone..... I really couldnt see going back to work prior to 6 weeks. I mean, you're still bleeding and swollen at 6 weeks, and you haven't slept more than 2 hours at a stretch so you're a zombie. Or at least I was.............
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