'Mapping Paid Mat Leave' -have you seen this?

[2have4kids]

I'm flabbergasted that the States has no Mat leave. Is this true? Maybe Obamacare is the first step to getting the healthcare situation sorted out? I can't understand why people would oppose having universal healthcare?
Ladies from other countries, do you know if this is accurate for you?

 

[MaMaRed1012]

I live in Iowa and where I worked (in a hospital as a nurse) we did not get maternity leave. We were allowed 12 weeks off that was covered by Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This protected us to keep our job but is also unpaid. If we took more time off our employer does not have to keep our position.

Husband and I decided it was best for us for me to be a stay at home mom. Although I have worked since I was 15 and now I am 34. I quit my job early so I can focus and enjoy this pregnancy and my 3 teenagers.

Compared to other countries the United States really does need to look at maternity leave. I doubt that there will be any changes anytime soon. However, there are some companies that may offer maternity leave and actually to be paid it is not required by law----only the FMLA.

 

[Celesse]

Not sure how they get 20 for the UK. You get first 6 weeks at 90% and then another 33 weeks at £136. Followed by another 13 weeks unpaid.

 

[2have4kids]

Wow, that's really tough going. You know what they say, baby steps in the right direction I suppose! You're lucky to have the ability to stay home with your kids
Here in Canada Quebec residents can get up to 2 years off, I don't think it's full pay but it's still paid to a certain extent. I'm totally jealous lol.
Celesse, I was wondering about the accuracy, that's one thing about infographics, unless the sources are sited, which they rarely are, the info can be incorrect.

 

[MaMaRed1012]

2have4kids, I am lucky to have the option to stay at home. However, I believe I made the decision to quit my job prematurely. I am bored out of my mind with nothing to do most days. However, that will soon be changing. I worked an extremely stressful position in open heart surgery. We took a lot of call time and when an emergency came in regardless of the time or day we were there. Husband wants me to be as stress free as possible as it is best for baby. I agree. However, he is gone throughout the week and I have teenagers who have their own lives as well. We live in the country which is nice and serene----but at times lonely.

Husband is Canadian (dual citizen) and he has mentioned many times the differences from their and here. Definitely jealous on their maternity leave!

 

[Johnsa37]

Like others have said, the government does not provide any maternity pay. However, my company does provide Salary Continuation. For the first 6 weeks off, I get 100% of my salary. For the next 6 weeks, I can get 70% of my salary. I plan on taking 12 weeks (per FMLA).

I am very grateful to have this benefit. Without it, I really don't think I could afford to take any time off.

 

[mara16jade]

Yeah, we have job security for 12 weeks, but no pay. Here in California we get 6 weeks of "disability" pay which is something like 60-70% of your pay (if you pay into that fund in your paycheck at work - I believe everyone except government employees have to pay into it though). I plan on taking off the max which with the other programs/laws available in California I believe I might be able to take off up to 16 weeks. That's that plan...

 

[TTC First]

Wow, that's really tough going. You know what they say, baby steps in the right direction I suppose! You're lucky to have the ability to stay home with your kids
Here in Canada Quebec residents can get up to 2 years off, I don't think it's full pay but it's still paid to a certain extent. I'm totally jealous lol.
Celesse, I was wondering about the accuracy, that's one thing about infographics, unless the sources are sited, which they rarely are, the info can be incorrect.

You get 2 years in Quebec? Is that full pay?

In Ontario mothers get one year and I believe it's 55% of your pay. I heard that you can ask for a leave of absence after that but that would be unpaid.

 

[2have4kids]

Wow, that's really tough going. You know what they say, baby steps in the right direction I suppose! You're lucky to have the ability to stay home with your kids
Here in Canada Quebec residents can get up to 2 years off, I don't think it's full pay but it's still paid to a certain extent. I'm totally jealous lol.
Celesse, I was wondering about the accuracy, that's one thing about infographics, unless the sources are sited, which they rarely are, the info can be incorrect.

You get 2 years in Quebec? Is that full pay?

In Ontario mothers get one year and I believe it's 55% of your pay. I heard that you can ask for a leave of absence after that but that would be unpaid.

Hi TTCFirst, no I live in alberta. Many companies have top up programs to bring you up to 100% here. Quebec has special provincial health care so they allow women to be off up to 2 years. I don't believe its full pay but I'm not sure of the percentage. They also have provincially capped daycare and electric rates lol. Wish we could have some of those special things. I guess we'd have to run a deficit like theirs and get equalization payments to fund it all from other provinces. OK OK sarcastic rant over.

 

[cookette]

I grew up on NHS when I lived overseas. For me personally, unpaid mat. leave (but with FMLA) is worth not having to be on NHS again. Awful.

 

[mara16jade]

Cookette, what was the difference? I've always been curious.

 

[cookette]

Mara- a lot of it came down to choice selection and waiting periods. We are always hearing stories of people coming to the US for medical tx (especially for cancer tx!) due to long waiting periods and doctor choice. With Obamacare/Affordable Care Act, a lot of Dr's are retiring or changing fields of practice or not doing medical at all because of the restrictions this will place.

I know for dental it will expand care to 3.5 million kids.....but END care for 7 million adults. Where's the trade off? I agree the system needs a change, I just dont think this is the right way to do it. My opinion only, of course!

 

[wannanewbaby]

Im in the states dont know a whole lot about the obamacare but i hear alot of people complaining about it. I currently dont work df makes enough to take care of everything but i know at my old job there was no maternity leave one of the girls there had to save her whole tax check to cover her bills why she was out and was only able to take 4 weeks off cause she couldnt afford anynore than that. Made me feel bad i do agree women should have more options here.

 

[themarshas]

I'm in the states. Last time around I worked for a small business who would guarantee my job as long as I wanted it (because they were just good people) but all my time was unpaid. I couldn't afford to take anymore than 7 weeks and I used my 4 weeks of vacation time to get some of it paid. Since then, I've switched jobs. My new employer is amazing! I'll get 26 weeks paid of some kind. The first 12 paid 100%, 12 more at 66% and 2 at 40%. It might not be at 100% but some is better than none!

 

[2have4kids]

Im in the states dont know a whole lot about the obamacare but i hear alot of people complaining about it. I currently dont work df makes enough to take care of everything but i know at my old job there was no maternity leave one of the girls there had to save her whole tax check to cover her bills why she was out and was only able to take 4 weeks off cause she couldnt afford anynore than that. Made me feel bad i do agree women should have more options here.

I agree and I believe it starts with providing some sort of universal health care. It works it's way up into eventually covering IVF's like they do in Britain under NHS (even Canada doesn't have this yet but hopefully we'll work towards this soon). Sure there's wait times but if you feel you're above wait times then there's always a private system to use (if you have $$$). People complain of wait times but then they forget that there's also a user pay system to fall back on. Sometimes the negative sticks to our memory better than getting the cancer cured or the surgery done free 5 months down the line.

Doctors will always leave public practice to make heaps of money in private practice as they do all over the world-it's human nature. But to have no healthcare as a citizen unless you're born with gold bricks in your pockets - well somehow all this seems fair to the PC's in Canada and the Republicans in the USA. Hopefully the individual states will set something up as some of the provinces sometimes do here in Canada (Quebec) until at least the universal healthcare in the US is broad enough to support better quality care for the masses. But there is something wrong with having nothing unless you work for Google, Oprah or were born into riches. I'd prefer to live somewhere where the common person has a little social equity/justice. A person can argue they had to wait when in a country that provides universal care but at least there are options, I'll take that over nothing at all.

 

[cookette]

No one here said it didn't need changed, I just said I personally didn't like how it was being attempted in the US or my own experiences with it. I work with a part of the population heavily reliant on medicaid/ medicare. Are some of these people legit in need? Absolutely, and I'm proud to serve them. Do others take foul advantage of the system? A shockingly large amount.

I don't work for Google or Oprah. I went in debt for my education but now have a solid job. Theres many who have the option and just don't and prefer to live off the system. I don't find it fair for my income to support a population that can provide for itsels but doesn't out of sheer laziness.

Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about a system paying for IVF or maternity pay. It raises a lot of questions on where to draw the line. What's an unalienable right? What's optional? What should every person be undeniably afforded? Everyone's answer will be different. Not even sure how I myself feel on all of it....

 

[wannanewbaby]

I am on medicade but its because df works for himself so we have no insurance but we do not take any other gov assistance. I do agree that many abuse the system and im like you not sure how i feel about what needs done to fix it.

 

[emicakess]

I haven't read the other posts on here yet. I wanted to add that I work at a preschool with 7 employees and my director didn't even know the maternity leave laws (when I mentioned 3 months off which I thought was standard she kinda FLIPPED) so I had to try and look it up.. I found that if you work at a company with more than 25 employees you are covered by Family Medical Leave Act for 12 weeks unpaid. Because my company has only 7 employees I don't know :/ I am thinking I am not going to get much time off at all especially since baby is due a month before the beginning of the school year. Also we work through summers,there is one week of no school but the teachers use that time to clean and prepare classrooms. So I am hoping for at least one month off. :'( I would really like to take 3, I don't care if its unpaid. But I really don't want to miss the first two months of school.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just in a jiffy

 

[2have4kids]

Emcakess I'm sorry, it's not fair. Women should have more rights in this day and age.
Cookette, IVF is paid for in Britain & Quebec (qualifying 1 to 3 tries by diagnosis and age) because it's thousands of times less expensive to cover IVF than multiple premature babies. Which is what happens when women like octomom have to pay for IVF privately. It's hugely expensive, you get 1 shot if you're lucky so we put all of the embryo's back. Even on twins, my gf's surgeries for 25 week old preemies were ~$500,000 mark each. She doesn't pay the bill for this, the public health care system does. So instead of flying specialists in to deal with heart defects, they pay a $7500 tab for a crack at IVF with a mandated 1 embryo transfer. Bam, quality of life for the masses and cost control for a public health care system. Abusers too can be mitigated by a properly run system, however there needs to be a want from the people for healthcare privileges rather than fear that you'll wind up paying someone else's bill. (It costs us $40/month here in Canada, nothing much to winge at).

 

[Tulip]

Not sure what the standard maternity pay here in UK is, but some employers 'top up' with a contribution, so I'm lucky enough to get full pay for 6months and half pay for three months. Anything further is unpaid.

But over here mat leave and pay is totally separate from Healthcare