My company just released their new parental leave policy - they offer up to 12 weeks of paid maternity - but the pay is 50% of base pay.

15 Comments

1. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 4:11PM UTC

   The attitude of many u.s. companies is that they are not going to take on the burden of maternity leave. They feel it's a shared burden. I'm not saying it's right but many employees that do not have families feel it's unfair because they do not receive a similar benefit. I hear it all the time at my company.

2. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 4:17PM UTC

   I cannot believe companies are doing this because it's not fair to those without families. I'm sure that's what they say, but I would not be surprised if this seeming "fairness" is just a way for them to save money. I hope I'm wrong.

3. Kate MNovember 7,2022 at 5:43PM UTC

   Thats why it's about equity, not equality. & its actually not a US company, its based in the EU with a USA division.

4. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 4:17PM UTC

   If this is a small company, that's actually very generous given that they struggle more to cover long absences and often work with small profit margins. I work for a state organization and we are just now getting 6 weeks of paid leave (as they enact complete abortion bans, go figure). Previously you had to use up all of your sick leave and annual leave or take leave without pay. We still have to utilize those options if we take the full 12 weeks allowed under FMLA. I think there's also an option for short-term disability at a reduced rate of pay.

5. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 4:19PM UTC

   If you are saying that not having enough leave time is justification for having an abortion, that's pretty crazy. I am absolutely astounded at what people will say to justify.

6. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 4:30PM UTC

   I am saying that they ignored all of the women employed by the entire state having to make huge financial sacrifices for decades, and only decided to throw a bone once completely removing certain options. Did some women employed by my state make the choice to abort because they couldn't manage the finances? Most likely. Economics is often cited as a primary factor in that decision.

7. Kate MNovember 7,2022 at 5:39PM UTC

   We have about 300 employees in the united states and around 1500 in EU. The USA division is newer, so they are implementing this maternity leave policy when they didn't have to before, since the EU provides it. There's no short term disability in our insurance.

8. AnonymousNovember 7,2022 at 7:26PM UTC

   Honestly? Be grateful. It should be on the U.S. not the individual companies to provide it. That your company is providing anything at all is a good thing when they actually do not have to. If you want change in the company and what they offer, my advice would be to work with them on making that change.

9. Changemaker993355November 8,2022 at 1:22PM UTC

   When I had my daughter there was no maternity leave. I was told to file for unemployment. I had to save money knowing I would be off for 6 weeks. Not knowing any better I did file for unemployment but it was declined because I was "not available to work until cleared by the doctor" That was 29 years ago so things have gotten better for pregnant women.

10. Meghan BNovember 8,2022 at 1:33PM UTC

    In several places I've worked, the only options were to run out your PTO, and then use short-term disability at whatever rate that was available. (most had a buy-up option from the standard 60% to usually 70%).

11. Kimberly ZelayaNovember 8,2022 at 2:47PM UTC

    I work for a university and before 2018, there was no parental leave policy for employees who weren't faculty. Then they came out with 6 weeks of half-paid leave. Starting January 1st, it will be 12 weeks of half-paid leave, with employees using sick time to cover the remaining half. Could they do 12 weeks of full paid leave? Absolutely! We had a lot of people submit complaints about the lack of benefits surrounding parental leave which is why they made this recent change. I don't want to say be grateful because the company can certainly do better, however, that's a lot better than most companies offer their employees who take parental leave.

12. Orlagh CostelloNovember 8,2022 at 2:48PM UTC

    I can never understand the US attitude (legally) to maternity leave and pay. You're entitled to six month's leave in Ireland and most places will allow a year, although not on full pay. Companies aren't obliged to give full pay for maternity leave, but most professional roles will for the 6 months. If not, there's a social security benefit for maternity leave anyway (€250 a week) which isn't huge but definitely better than nothing. And yes, employers do tend to hire in contract staff to cover people on maternity.

13. AnonymousNovember 8,2022 at 3:56PM UTC

    50% for 12 weeks is still so much better than 0% for 12 weeks. I don't think that it's misleading for the company to say the leave is paid because it is paid. The company is being supportive, but the company's job is to protect their best interests - you are the one who has to protect your family's best interests - whether that's returning to work early or living on less pay is a decision (albeit a hard one) that you have to make.

    Have you asked your HR department about optional disability coverage? This sort of benefit would be a paycheck deduction for you, but provide some disability coverage while you were out. It doesn't help if you're already pregnant, but it has the advantage of being helpful to the entire workforce population for illness as well as maternity leave.

14. AnonymousNovember 8,2022 at 4:45PM UTC

    I have worked for several companies. One, we would "bank" our remaining PTO for the year into short-term disability, and when I went out on maternity leave for that company they took the banked hours and divided it by how many weeks/days I was off. This resulted in about 70% of my pay. This was unusual as the other company I had worked for had 0 pay for maternity leave unless you paid extra for short-term disability.

    The company I am working for today, implemented maternity leave this year for all. It is tiered - the "primary caregiver" receives 3 months of full pay after the birth or adoption of a child. The "secondary caregiver" receives an additional 2 weeks paid to be taken during the first year of the child's life or adoption to be used at their discretion.

15. Changemaker993355November 8,2022 at 7:04PM UTC

    What a great company benefit! That really is nice.