NWR: Maternity Leave Policy?

Hi Ladies,
I am wondering if any of you know what the official policy for maternity leave is in NY State?
I've tried asking my employer and I can't get a straight concise answer out of them. All I get is 'I'm not exactly sure what the policy is but I know we reimburse you more than the minimum NY State requirement.'

We're not TTC right now but at some point in the next year or two we will be. And I'd rather get all my ducks in a row prior to that.

Some sites talk about the looking in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Some talk about disability laws covering that. And possibility of applying for disability prior to getting pregnant to get further compensation.

Does anyone know where, officially from NY State I can get this information.

How long do you get off (4 weeks? 6 weeks?) and what the compensation percentage of your salary is?

Thank You!

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Posted by Gerbera

Hi Ladies,
I am wondering if any of you know what the official policy for maternity leave is in NY State?
I've tried asking my employer and I can't get a straight concise answer out of them. All I get is 'I'm not exactly sure what the policy is but I know we reimburse you more than the minimum NY State requirement.'

We're not TTC right now but at some point in the next year or two we will be. And I'd rather get all my ducks in a row prior to that.

Some sites talk about the looking in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Some talk about disability laws covering that. And possibility of applying for disability prior to getting pregnant to get further compensation.

Does anyone know where, officially from NY State I can get this information.

How long do you get off (4 weeks? 6 weeks?) and what the compensation percentage of your salary is?

Thank You!

---

If you search US Department of Labor you should be able to get info in terms of what the laws are.

For my company, I believe 6 weeks is paid w/ full compenstation, and then you can take up to 3 months if you'd like. Some people have negotiated pay through the remaining two months, but not sure how that works yet.

I just had a baby and the maternity leave is basically temporary disability. Your Human resources dept should know! LOL or it should be in teh employee handbook? Anyway it should be 6 weeks for regular delivery and 8 weeks for csection....and I didnt get paid my full salary. I will try to get you a number. i had to talk to an insurance company that receives the disability claim and they only pay the max which was not much...i believe its standard. Sorry I dont have more info but did you check NY state website? if not the Dept of Labor.
No matter what, it is the LAW that you MUST have time off for having a baby. And also its a law that each employer MUST have a separate room in their company to have any mothers 'express milk' meaning a place where they can breastpump. Its the law...i will see if i can get the info. Are you in Nassau or Suffolk?

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Posted by thefloreswedding

I just had a baby and the maternity leave is basically temporary disability. Your Human resources dept should know! LOL or it should be in teh employee handbook? Anyway it should be 6 weeks for regular delivery and 8 weeks for csection....and I didnt get paid my full salary. I will try to get you a number. i had to talk to an insurance company that receives the disability claim and they only pay the max which was not much...i believe its standard. Sorry I dont have more info but did you check NY state website? if not the Dept of Labor.
No matter what, it is the LAW that you MUST have time off for having a baby. And also its a law that each employer MUST have a separate room in their company to have any mothers 'express milk' meaning a place where they can breastpump. Its the law...i will see if i can get the info. Are you in Nassau or Suffolk?

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this sounds right...a friend of mine just had a baby. Our policy stinks...all that is required is to allow you to sign up for FMLA (which will basically ensure you have a job to return to) and then you get paid whatever the company disability rate is. Companies do not have to pay anymore then that...and mine does not! you get $170 per week and that is all

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Posted by thefloreswedding

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Thank You!

Our employee handbook has been updated half a dozen times since the 2 years I've been here and that's one section that has always remained one paragraph of useless information. Mainly because there's really only been one person who went on maternity leave since the firm opened. But it's time they have a official written policy in place!!! I love my firm but the unclear policies such as this annoy the heck out of me!
Human Resources is basically one of the partners and the office manager that puts together the handbook. Both of whom I've asked and have not been helpful.

So my plan is to look up the official policy myself, print it out, email a link to HR and come to them with that then ask what our firm policy is.
The office manager told me that she thinks we compensate 1.5 times what the minimum is. But I would also like to know what the max time I can take off is per policy. I mean I know if I wanted to stay home longer they would let me and most likely unless I stay away for like 1-2 years or something I will still have a job waiting for me. But I want to know what my firm's official policy. I'm not one for taking advantage of benefits so I want to know what the maximum is and try not to push it too much.
Her telling me that verbally is all fine and well but I want IN the handbook and know that we can depend on that money coming in. That way we can budget and plan for the loss of income before TTC. I would hate to think I'm going to get XX$ every week then when I go to file for it hear oh I was wrong it's actually only X$.

It's just generally annoying because I've asked the office manager twice and she hasn't told me anything. And now I know another girl in the firm is thinking about TTC soon as well and was wondering what the policy is. We have two girls getting married in 2011 so I'm sure this will be a concern to them as well in the near future.

Do you ladies think it would be a good idea to approach the other ladies in my office and see if they want to individually contact HR/office manager. Maybe that way they will realize this is a big issue and actually put this in the handbook!

The minimal information I've found online matches what you've told me. I did find a passage in the Labor laws but it's so confusing the way they word it!!!

And I'm actually living in Upstate now.

I pretty much have to save all my vacation and sick time. Awesome. So much on going on some vacations with DH before kids.

I was just on maternity leave from January to april. 6 weeks in NYS for reg birth, you get disability pay which is about $170/week max. 8 weeks for c-sect but only 6 weeks paid.
You are entitled to take FMLA if you work for a company that has more than 50 employees and if you have worked there for at least one year. You are only entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid time off per year as per FMLA. If your company allows you, you can use your holiday/sick/vacation time in that 12 week period to get paid but after that runs out it is all unpaid.
Check with your company's HR department for their policies. That is your best bet.
Hope that helps!

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Posted by MrsDtoB

I was just on maternity leave from January to april. 6 weeks in NYS for reg birth, you get disability pay which is about $170/week max. 8 weeks for c-sect but only 6 weeks paid.
You are entitled to take FMLA if you work for a company that has more than 50 employees and if you have worked there for at least one year. You are only entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid time off per year as per FMLA. If your company allows you, you can use your holiday/sick/vacation time in that 12 week period to get paid but after that runs out it is all unpaid.
Check with your company's HR department for their policies. That is your best bet.
Hope that helps!

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Thank you!
That is very helpful!

The 6wks/regular and 8wks/Csection is what I've found everywhere as well.
I won't qualify for FMLA then because our firm is under 50 employees.

Did you look into buying a separate disability insurance? I wonder what the rough amount monthly is for that insurance.

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Posted by adelz

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Posted by Gerbera

Hi Ladies,
I am wondering if any of you know what the official policy for maternity leave is in NY State?
I've tried asking my employer and I can't get a straight concise answer out of them. All I get is 'I'm not exactly sure what the policy is but I know we reimburse you more than the minimum NY State requirement.'

We're not TTC right now but at some point in the next year or two we will be. And I'd rather get all my ducks in a row prior to that.

Some sites talk about the looking in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Some talk about disability laws covering that. And possibility of applying for disability prior to getting pregnant to get further compensation.

Does anyone know where, officially from NY State I can get this information.

How long do you get off (4 weeks? 6 weeks?) and what the compensation percentage of your salary is?

Thank You!

---

If you search US Department of Labor you should be able to get info in terms of what the laws are.

For my company, I believe 6 weeks is paid w/ full compenstation, and then you can take up to 3 months if you'd like. Some people have negotiated pay through the remaining two months, but not sure how that works yet.

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pretty sure this is right... I think you're guaranteed 6 weeks but you can take more time if you want. Though if you haven't been with the company more than 1 year I think they can limit the amount of time you take...

my company's maternity policy is 12 weeks of full pay from the date of child's birth. These weeks dont count as disability which is great.

Fathers are given 3 weeks of paternity leave and are paid fully.

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Posted by luckycouple05

my company's maternity policy is 12 weeks of full pay from the date of child's birth. These weeks dont count as disability which is great.

Fathers are given 3 weeks of paternity leave and are paid fully.

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Dang! Can I come work for your company?

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Posted by Gerbera

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Posted by MrsDtoB

I was just on maternity leave from January to april. 6 weeks in NYS for reg birth, you get disability pay which is about $170/week max. 8 weeks for c-sect but only 6 weeks paid.
You are entitled to take FMLA if you work for a company that has more than 50 employees and if you have worked there for at least one year. You are only entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid time off per year as per FMLA. If your company allows you, you can use your holiday/sick/vacation time in that 12 week period to get paid but after that runs out it is all unpaid.
Check with your company's HR department for their policies. That is your best bet.
Hope that helps!

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Thank you!
That is very helpful!

The 6wks/regular and 8wks/Csection is what I've found everywhere as well.
I won't qualify for FMLA then because our firm is under 50 employees.

Did you look into buying a separate disability insurance? I wonder what the rough amount monthly is for that insurance.

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The 6 weeks/8 weeks is NYS disability. That is guaranteed. You are entitled that no matter what under NYS after giving birth. As for anything else, it is entirely up to your company that you work for.
FMLA is also guaranteed by law, but there are stipulations, such as number of employees, and time worked at the company. The only thing FMLA does is secure your job position for 12 weeks.
Unfortunately, there is no maternity policy for NYS or the USA for that matter, it kind of stinks for new mothers.
I never looked into any other long term disability, so I can't really say much about that, and I don't know if childbirth would be covered under that...for some reason I don't think it would be.
I hear Canada gives women up to 1 year off after giving birth! Maybe I should look into moving north!!

My policy is 6 weeks paid and you can take a total of 3 months.

On another note, a good friend of ours works at Google and he got 7 weeks PATERNITY leave---and he didn't even need to use it all at once, its good for the first year after child is born. Ridiculous.

That's awesome about the Paternity Leave. While it's so disheartening that the U.S. sucks on maternity leave policy it is nice to see some companies recognizing Paternity leave as well.

I know Aflac has a disability insurance that covers pregnancy. But it has to be purchased prior to being pregnant.
I've heard there's a couple other carriers that provide it.

Unfortunately Travelers (we have home, auto, etc through them) does not have disability insurance that covers pregnancy.

We don't plan to TTC till my husband gets a new job which would mean a pay cut for him. I don't think we could survive the two of us AND a baby on my $170/wk and his lower paycheck! So I might get a quote on the insurance to see if the monthly payments would be worth what I can get back during maternity leave.

hehehe sure! I work for an investment bank and I think most financial services companies have great maternity policies that I have seen.