Maternity leave... California style

Well, I've officially finished work... 4 weeks before my due date. Maternity leave is complicated over here... for a start, it varies state to state, so these comments apply only to California. And then depending on your company's benefits/policies/etc, it can vary again. Here's how mine works...

36 weeks pregnant through to baby's birth

Short term disability leave... I found this hilarious when I first heard it, but you know - I kind of do feel a bit disabled sometimes, so maybe it's not so weird after all!! The state pays me 55% of my usual salary, and my company's insurance provider tops it up to 75%. If I wanted, I could use my accrued vacation or sick time to top this up to 100%. So this is 4 weeks leave if your baby comes on time, less if he's early, more if he's late (you can't tag it on post-partum if he comes early, you just miss out on that extra pay). If your pregnancy is complicated (e.g., bedrest), you can stop working much earlier (as soon as your Dr says you can't work), and you still get the 55%/75% paid.

Baby's birth to 6 weeks post-partum

More short term disability (same 55%/75% payment of salary), to recover from the birth. This extends to 8 weeks for a caesarian, or longer if there are maternal complications at birth (again, it's basically for as long as your Dr says you are disabled). In total (pre & post birth), you can take up to 17 weeks short-term disability, and your company MUST hold your job for you & continue to provide benefits (although you still have to pay your part of the health insurance premiums, which are usually taken out of your pay automatically).

6 to 12 weeks post-partum

Baby bonding" time under a federal law (FMLA), which gives you the right to take 12 weeks unpaid leave to bond with your child during their first year, but the first 6 weeks of which overlap with the 6 weeks post-partum disability leave. The state will reimburse you for the 6 weeks of this leave that doesn't overlap with the disability leave (again, at 55% of your salary), but the company's private insurer doesn't top this one up to 75%. I'm choosing to take all 12 weeks immediately following the birth, but you can spread it out over the year if you want to - e.g., if you went back to work part-time, you could use the 6 weeks paid baby bonding time to top up your salary a bit more).

12 to 24 weeks post-partum

More "baby bonding" time, this time under a California state law (CFRA). This is totally unpaid, and again, can be taken at any time during baby's first year (I'm choosing to run mine on immediately following the federal baby bonding time). Your employer MUST hold your job for you & continue to provide benefits, etc.

This is the end of any "official" maternity leave entitlements.

24 to 40 weeks post-partum

Depending on your company, you may be allowed to take additional, unpaid leave - basically just a personal leave of absence (PLOA), or leave-without-pay. Many companies don't let you do this (or don't guarantee you a job at the end of it), but luckily, my company is pretty family-friendly, and has approved me to take PLOA at the end of my official maternity leave, which is another 4 months (the maximum they allow someone to take in one hit). This gives me almost 10 months off work, in total. So I'll be returning to work at the end of May 2010.

Paternity Leave

Dads are also entitled to the 12 weeks leave under the federal FMLA law, and also get 6 weeks of this partially paid by the state (at 55%). Again, they can choose to take this all at once, or spread it out over the baby's first year. Hamish's company restricts him to taking it in one-week increments, but other companies allow you to take it as you want (e.g., taking one day a week off work for 40 weeks, 2 days a week off work for 20 weeks, etc).

The FMLA law also applies to adoptions, which I thought was pretty cool. There's a weird clause in this law though, that means that if the mum & dad both work for the same company, they only get 12 weeks leave between them, not each (although I think they both get paid by the state for 6 weeks each).

So in summary:

For the mum:

10 weeks, paid at 75%

6 weeks, paid at 55%

12 weeks, unpaid

= 28 weeks, 16 of which are partially paid (entitled to by law)

(+ 16 weeks, unpaid (optional) = 44 weeks total leave)

And for the dad:

6 weeks, paid at 55%

6 weeks, unpaid

= 12 weeks, 6 of which are partially paid (entitled to by law).

And compared to NZ:

For the mum:

14 weeks, paid at a maximum of $430/week (this is only about a third of what my salary was in NZ before we left)

38 weeks, unpaid

= 52 weeks total, 14 of which are partially paid (entitled to by law).

For the dad:

Nothing (although he can take some of the mum's unpaid leave if he wants, which reduces the time she can take).

***OOPS - my bad... NZ dads actually get 2 weeks unpaid leave, and can also share the mum's unpaid leave.

So actually, in terms of paid leave, I'm much better off having my baby here in the US, than in NZ... which I found quite surprising. Only 2 extra weeks of paid leave (16 vs 14), but the amount you get paid is SIGNIFICANTLY more.

In terms of unpaid leave, NZ is better (52 vs 28), although I'm lucky that my company is granting me the additional 16 weeks PLOA, so the difference in total time off is only 8 weeks).

Anyway, so I've described this as simply as I could, which is still pretty confusing. But this is a HEAPS simpler explanation than anything I was given by my work, the hospital, found online, or any other source... took me quite a while to get my head around it!