Maternity Leave on the United Stated

[OrianaVianey]

A friend of mine just told me that maternity leave is not payed in the US... is that true?

Now I´m curious... could you girls tell me more?

[misfitinmn]

I don't know all the ins and outs, but I think a company of 50 or more people is required to provide up to 12 weeks of leave and still have the job protected, but it's not required to be paid. When I had my babies, I got short term disability pay (I think it was like 80% of my normal pay) for 8 weeks (normally 6 for a vaginal delivery but 8 with a c-section) and then I took the remaining 4 weeks off using my paid time off. It's not great, and forces moms to return to work way too soon after baby is born. I see a lot of moms going back to work a week or two after baby comes. I felt like even 12 weeks was not really enough to get us settled into a routine before I was back to work.

Sorry that's kind of a jumbled mess of thoughts.

[Lyd]

It's true. If you've accrued some vacation pay or sick pay, you can use that. You can also use short term disability insurance to get partial pay, but there isn't actual paid maternity leave. One of our presidential candidates this year is pushing for this, so maybe it will happen some day.


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[nietis]

That is sad to know, Sara & Lyd.
I know here in China and in some companies in Indonesia, they do get paid during maternity leave.

[Suzs]

We are pretty lucky in Canada. Lots of my friends that moved to the states only got a few short weeks at home before returning to work. That first year is far enough it hour having to work on top of everything else.

[Tronesia]

Originally Posted by Lyd

It's true. If you've accrued some vacation pay or sick pay, you can use that. You can also use short term disability insurance to get partial pay, but there isn't actual paid maternity leave. One of our presidential candidates this year is pushing for this, so maybe it will happen some day.


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This is what I remember too.

When I had my daughter in 2008, I started my job and I was pregnant with her. Because I had not been there long enough, I did not quality for short term disability (which only paid about 60% of your normal salary after 2-3 weeks of being off). Per the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), companies have to allow up to 12 weeks per year. Some companies will outline 6 weeks for natural birth and 8 weeks for Cesarean as a minimum you have to be off. I stayed off the whole 12 weeks, unpaid.

Because I was in training when I went in labor, I could not use my vacation/sick time but it did continue to accrue while I was out. We had to save all of our extra money to cover the bills for when I was off. It was rough, but we had just enough saved to cover bills for those months. I stocked up on diapers beforehand and our parents helped A LOT. We would not have food if it wasn't for them.

It really does stink there is not a better policy here.

[KristinCB]

In canada we have one year of maternity leave, it isn't full pay though. I believe it is 40% or 50% up to a max of $500 a week. (I think. I could be wrong)

[nietis]

One year of maternity leave is awesome! China and Indonesia only have 3 months leave.


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[Gemma]

Over here (UK) it's 90% of your weekly earnings for 6 weeks, then £140 a week for 33 weeks after that. You can also have another 13 weeks off but that's unpaid.

[luckyme]

Originally Posted by KristinCB

In canada we have one year of maternity leave, it isn't full pay though. I believe it is 40% or 50% up to a max of $500 a week. (I think. I could be wrong)

In Canada, we have job-protected maternity leave of up to one year and we receive weekly government benefits of about $530 max like kcb said. Some employers top up your leave pay as part of your benefits package.

[OrianaVianey]

Wow, very interesting, I guess for some things we are not so third world after all...

Here in Panama we have 12 weeks FULL PAID leave. The laboral code mark that shoulf be 6 weeks before giving birth and 6 weeks after, but is very often that we take the 12 weeks after to spend more time with the baby. You can also add vacations to take more time.

And a new mom can´t be fired withing a year after she give birth.
She also have 15 minutes to breastfeed every two hours, that can be use if the work have daycare, but if it don´t, then she can leave an hour earlier or arrive an hour later or take 2 hour lunch.

[roxana]

Here in Peru things are like in Panama, 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after, that total 12 weeks that can be used according to your needs and full pay of course, with breastfeed hours too, and besides you can't be fired since the first day you know you're pregnant, I'm not sure how much after though.

[OrianaVianey]

Originally Posted by roxana

Here in Peru things are like in Panama, 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after, that total 12 weeks that can be used according to your needs and full pay of course, with breastfeed hours too, and besides you can't be fired since the first day you know you're pregnant, I'm not sure how much after though.

Yeah, here too, you cannot be fired since the moment you notify you are pregnant until a year after you gave birth.

PS: I haven´t noticed thet you were from Peru

[Valgal]

For me, the idea of paid maternity time BLOWS MY MIND. I suppose some employers could have a deal in their contract. 6 weeks is the general leave time. Like Sara said, 4 week short term disability and 2 weeks 'family leave.' I've never known anyone to have a percentage of pay though. I've had friends who are teachers and try to time their pregnancies so that they have their baby at the end of the school year and can have time with them over the summer w/o it effecting their pay. I actually quit my job when Johnny was born because at 6 weeks I couldn't bear to leave him. He was a sick little dude and I couldn't bring myself to leave him in anyone else's care.

I have to wonder what effect a new law about this would have on our poverty levels. Especially single mommies.

[carrie1977]

I work for a school district. You don't get disability pay unless you pay for the coverage from a company. We use American Fidelity. You have to use your own sick/vacation time if you don't have that coverage. That's definitely why most teachers try to plan for summer babies (which sucks if you live here in our temperatures). Luckily, when I was pregnant with my son I had accrued enough sick/vacation time to take 9 weeks off after he was born. I worked up until the week before he was born so that I could spend most of my time off after and since I was induced I knew the exact date he would be here. One of the problems of having to use your sick/vac time though is you then don't have much to use if your baby gets sick and you'd need to take time off. :/

[Valgal]

Gosh, I didn't realize how backwards we sound till everyone else started sharing their benefits, lol!

[JennNtheBoys]

Wow... I had no idea how 'rough' it was to have a baby in the US and I'm American! So you guys basically have to "pay" for your kids (hospital bills) AND you don't have the choice of if you want to spend their whole first year with them? Guess I've been spoiled being raised in Canada and having my children here and didn't even know it. (all I know is the terrible health care - I know I shouldn't complain cause it's free but, free isn't always a good thing)... but back to topic, you guys really get the raw end of the deal Honestly, I still haven't figured out why my parents didn't request a refund with me... LOL

[bexy]

American healthcare has a boatload of problems - this is just one MAJOR example!!

[JennNtheBoys]

yea, same goes for the free stuff. My biggest issue, is all the hospital closures. a few communities have managed to keep their hospitals open as a health center (good for appointments or bloodwork) but the nearest hospital with an actual ER is over an hour away (just over 80 miles) in any direction. Same goes for nearest hospital with labour and delivery or anything really that deals with more than the common cold / flu. (and it's not because we have few people... it's a total area of 130000 people).

[icindi]

Yikes Jenn. Do you think physicians are not paid enough, hence not enough providers?


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[Ethereal_sheep]

How amazing! I work for a small business, but I carry my own disability insurance. So I got 1/4 of my pay through that! My husband and I saved for 3 years to be able to afford to take time off. Lol...we only gave it a year between babies...so I don't think I'll be able to afford to take much time with baby #2. Our country is really backwards with regards to maternity leave.

[JennNtheBoys]

That's exactly the issue. They can't afford enough Doctors. I think there needs to be a "happy medium" created.... free has its downside, but obviously so does giving everything you got to put on medical bills.... just my 2 cents worth on both systems.

So if you are pretty much expected to go back to work right away are you given any kind of compensation from the government to help with Child Care costs?

[MamaBee]

I worked at a Fortune 500 company and got 12 weeks unpaid ML... but still had insurance. However, when I was coming back to work, I was going to switch to part time. That meant I lost health insurance. The only time you can switch insurances outside of open period, has to be a major life event... having a baby is one. Both my doctor and hospital were out of network for my husband's insurance. We had to fight that the baby was born under my insurance, thus covered... it was such a mess.

If you are low income, you can get some assistance for child care. Otherwise, nothing. Once of the reasons I stopped working was because, doing the math - it was cheaper for me to stay home.

[SeattleSheri]

Yeah, it's really employer-specific in the US. For example, my employer pays 2 weeks of maternal/paternal benefits for all employees. In addition to that, we get 1 week of short-disability paid at 100% for every year of employment, the remainder is paid at 60% until the end of the disability period. In WA state, you can stack your STD and FMLA, so you can maximize your time off period to 18+ weeks. Anything not paid by STD is either unpaid or you can use any accrued vacation time.

[carrie1977]

Originally Posted by JennNtheBoys

So if you are pretty much expected to go back to work right away are you given any kind of compensation from the government to help with Child Care costs?

Ha! No way! I've shelled out so much money on childcare costs. My kids are 12 and 8 and I literally just stopped paying for childcare since they are old enough to stay home. I've paid upwards of $14,000/year on daycare.

[ChristineF]

Norway has one of the best maternity leaves. It starts 3 weeks before estimated due date, then you get 49 weeks (10 of which is for the dad) of full paid leave. Or you can do 10 more weeks for mom, but at 80% of the pay. Mom has 13 minimum, dad has 10 minimum, the rest can be shared as to your liking. As long as one parent is working while the other is home with the baby.

[lovely1m]

Yes, this is one of my hot button issues. No paid maternity leave. Six weeks is way too early to go back to work and that's after making no money for however long.

[KristinCB]

someone on my FB this week posted something about how it's illegal for puppies to be sold earlier than 8 weeks because they need the time with their mom yet there are no laws about moms going back to work early.. interesting to think about.

[Valgal]

I have to wonder how it all levels out though. Sure, all this paid maternity time sounds awesome... but it's coming from somewhere.

Originally Posted by KristinCB

someone on my FB this week posted something about how it's illegal for puppies to be sold earlier than 8 weeks because they need the time with their mom yet there are no laws about moms going back to work early.. interesting to think about.

Well, THAT's a thought for sure!

[lovely1m]

We are literally the only developed country in the world without paid maternity leave. If every single other developed country and many that are considered 'third world' can do it, I think we can, too.

[~Cindy~]

I had a C-section with both my sons. The first I was in the hospital four days. The second three days. My husband was home two weeks each time. Except for when I had my youngest his Dad died so he had to take that week off when my baby was only two weeks old. He didn't get any paid time off he used vacation time. Now he is only allowed to take five sick days a year, even though he gets one sick day a month! Luckily I stay at home so no worries on that front.

[rach3975]

When my oldest was born, I was working for the Federal Government. I'd only been there a year so I didn't have much vacation time, and I had been using my sick leave for all of my pregnancyelated doctor's appointments. My husband also worked for the government and had been there 10+ years, so he had tons of time saved up. There's a system within the government that allows people who have to be out of work to get unused vacation time donated from others. So we were able to work the system a little, and DH donated enough time that he had saved up to cover about 6 weeks of my leave. He also took a month off and had enough time to cover himself, too. (Are you getting the sense that my DH doesn't choose to take off from work much? You'd be right! We're still working on that with him, LOL.) But yeah, if not for DH donating time to me my entire maternity leave would have been unpaid.

[aurian]

I feel so sad when I see online friends posting about returning to their jobs in the US when their babies are 6-12 weeks old. It's hard to get into a routine with your baby and everything associated with that so early on, let alone thinking about work stresses, pumping and/or feeding etc. I am extremely thankful to be living in Australia, where we have access to 14 weeks of paid leave (taken at minimum wage) and, depending on your industry, an extra 12 weeks at full pay (I work as a teacher, so the Education Department covers that cost).

Considering how much media coverage changes to healthcare (ie, the 'Obamacare') seem to attract, I'd be interested to hear how many people were against a paid parental leave scheme to be honest.

[marlathrall]

Teddy will be six weeks old on Sunday. There is NO WAY I'd be ready to go back to work. Luckily, we are self employed and he will just go with Colby or I whenever we are working.

[roxana]

Just heard in the radio that the maternity law was updated today in my country, 98 days instead of the 90 we had before, I know it's not much addition but I'm sure that for a mom having to go back to work each day means a lot. And I just read a little more about it, you can have 30 more days (full pay) if it is a multiple birth or disability. Besides, fathers can have up to 4 days full pay to get prepared for the birth or take them right after, what suits them best.

[OrianaVianey]

Since a few of you mentioned, teachers in Panama have 20 weeks of full paid maternity leave (8 more weeks than regular jobs)

[Becca Bonneville]

With my oldest I worked for the State of Illinois (correctional officer-union) so I had 6 weeks paid maternity leave. It seemed to quick going back after only 6 weeks, working 16 hours some days. With my other two I worked from home. Much nicer being able to be here with them. I do think we could work on how we handle maternity leave here in the US.

[Nettio]

The sad truth is the lack of paid maternity leave is just a symptom of a larger women's rights issue happening in the US. It's the same reason we're still talking about equal pay for equal work and abortion rights. President Obama said it best when he said "If men had babies, we'd have different policies." Sad but true.

Some companies, cities & states do have their own policies, there's just nothing on the federal level. Like I know Facebook now offers 4 months of paid baby leave to all parents but that's pretty rare.

[flergs]

We get $600 a week for 18 weeks and it is for Mothers and Fathers.

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[flergs]

Oh and I think a year leave unpaid after your 18 weeks.

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