Maine Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Maternity Leave question
Just curious-- how many ladies here are offered maternity leave from their employers? And if so, does the benefit cover employees if they get pregnant before their hire date?
I didn't even think about this, but my SIL says that at her vet clinic, their coverage is only for employees who get pregnant AFTER their employment benefits kick in (I think their probationary period is 30 days).
"Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky." -- Ranier Maria Rilke
Me:37 MH:38
TTC since Oct 2011
BFP/Beta#1: 13 6/20/12; Beta#2: 20 6/22/12;
MC/Beta#3: 9 6/27/12 BFP#2/Beta#1: 9/21/12
S/PAIFW
Me:37 MH:38
TTC since Oct 2011
BFP/Beta#1: 13 6/20/12; Beta#2: 20 6/22/12;
MC/Beta#3: 9 6/27/12 BFP#2/Beta#1: 9/21/12
S/PAIFW
Re: Maternity Leave question
With the Family Medical Leave Act, employers are required to provide employees who have been with them for 1 year of more, up to 12 weeks off, and hold your job for you until you come back. They are not required to pay you though. If you have been with an employer for less than a year they are not required by law to give you any maternity leave and they are not required to hold your job for you if you do take leave.
In addition to above, my employer offers employees who have been there a year or more, Short Term Disability for 6-8 weeks (of the 12). I get paid 60% of my normal salary for that 6-8 weeks.
Unfortunately I don't think most employers offer anything unless you have been there a year, but I would definitely be up front with them if you do get offered a job. You never know, they may be very accommodating. Also if you start someplace soon, then you only have to wait 3 months to get pregnant so you can at least get FMLA...which really isn't too long, I don't think anyways.
Wherever I end up working, it will be a hospital. Since so many women work at hospitals, hospitals *tend* on average to be good about offering maternity leave. But I don't know if pregnancy would be considered a pre-existing condition. My classmate who works at CMMC thinks I would be covered, but I don't trust her since she's not referencing the benefits page or handbook.
I'm asking mostly because it dictates when I take out my Mirena. Just something to consider, you know?
This is what I was thinking...
Ditto pp. I had to be there for over a year (and have worked over a certain number of hours in the past year - I think it was 1200), in order to qualify for FMLA. If I had been there less than a year, I would have had to get approval from the director of my department in order to take a leave of absence - which is different from FMLA because, under FMLA, my employer continued to pay my benefits, but they do not do that under a leave of absence. Plus, I had to be there for over a year in order to qualify for STD.
I would agree. As for what our benefits are, we have to be there for a year to qualify for FMLA but can take accrued sick and annual leave whenever we want. However, as long as you are performing well, you can usually take up to a year (unpaid once you deplete sick and annual leave) off for medical reasons and maternity leave before your job is in jeopardy. That's why so many of my co-workers take six month maternity leaves. :-)
I was allowed 6 weeks Short Term Disability (would have been 8 if it was a csection) and then could take FMLA (up to the max number of weeks/days, but I don't know what that is) after if I chose to extend my maternity. We could not financially afford that so I had to go back to work after 6 weeks. We get paid 75% of our salary and could use PTO to supplement to make 100% pay for the weeks we are gone. (worked out well for me because I left halfway through a pay period, and got back halfway through a pay period).
I'm not sure if there is a time frame as far as being eligible for the benefits (except FMLA, you have to have been employed at least a year) but I'm pretty sure my STD was available immediately.
Virtually no employer offers "maternity leave" per se. What you have is (1) FMLA, which is federal protection of your job for up to 12 weeks (if your employer has more than 50 employees in a 75 mile radius, you've been at your job for at least 12 months, and worked at least 1250 hours during that time), and (2) short-term disability insurance (STD).
After a vaginal birth you will be disabled for 6 weeks; a c-section is 8 weeks. STD will pay a portion of your income while you are disabled, minus any exclusion period (sometimes one or two weeks). STD runs concurrently with FMLA leave.
STD policies and practices will vary by employer and insurance provider. I know some policies won't pay out unless they'be been in effect for at least 10 months before the birth, while others don't have that restriciton.
If it's a question of simply waiting a month or two, I think it makes sense for me to wait. No reason to count myself out of a maternity leave. And actually, being from away, I don't know the differences between Maine's state laws and Connecticut's-- where I worked in Boston and then at Yale, we actually had a maternity leave (not STD). So this is all new to me. And it doesn't help that I am not working at the moment, so I can't even look up my potential employer's policy...
With Wayne still a year and a half away from his OT degree, we need all the money we can get, so I want to have an income settled before I take the leap. I think that's a pretty major duck to have in the row-- the rest I can figure out, I think, as I get closer...
Thanks for the all the input!
There is something about 3 months after hire but i'd have to review the policy. I think you aren't eligible for FMLA until you've been at a company for a year.
Is it the same for you at the family practice as it would be for me at the hospital? I wasn't sure if the benefits packages were different... Only if you have the time to check, I'd love a solid answer! I am impatient, but am trying to be responsible!
I'm at a hospital.... so I think someone said as long as you waited 3 months from hire date, you should be fine!
First, Daniele I'm super excited that you're talking about this!!!!!!!!!
Second, I know FMLA kicks in after a year, however is it when the birth occurs? My plan is to get a job, wait three months and get knocked up. If baby is born one year after start date it's considered a FMLA case right?
You'd need to have been at your job for at least a year before whenever you go out on leave. If you work up until day you give birth, then it starts when you give birth. If you're on bedrest for the last two months of your pregnancy, then your leave would start when you stop working. If you had gotten pregnant after being on the job for three months and then were put on bedrest at seven months, FMLA would not protect your job.
If it was me, personally, I'd wait at least 4 or 5 months into a new job before trying to get pregnant if I was concerned about qualifying for FMLA job protection. Sometimes babies like to come early! (For example, Helen was born at 37 weeks gestation which is 35 calendar weeks. If I'd only been at a job for 12 or 13 weeks at the time I got pregnant, I wouldn't have qualified for FMLA.)
I think this is a really good point! In my work group, we plan on all expectant mothers needing coverage starting at 7 months, just in case. It's amazing the number of people who go out on bed rest, deliver early, etc. Granted, we also have 10-15% of our staff giving birth every year, which is unusual!
Let me know if you want me to email you my hospitals leave policy but what everyone is saying makes sense! Since I'm at work now, I can email it to you.
Jumping in really late, but I work with disability insurance. If your employer does offser short term disability, it can either run with FMLA or sooner than FMLA, if your policy allows (depending on when you are covered). Some do have a pre-ex, (which would include pregnancy), but not all. It truly is policy specific.
If there is no Short-term with the Employer, then you would have to wait the year to be FMLA eligible.
Hope that helps, and if you have any questions about disabilty feel free to e-mail me at katsblazeatyahoodotcom.