BlogHer - Maternity Leave Going The Way Of The $2.00 Gallon Of Gas - Comments

It's why I'm sticking with one

Laracolvin — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:54:45 -0500

I work for a school and take care of other people's children all day, so one would think an educator's maternity leave would be paid. Instead, I would have to use my 10 sick days I'm allowed per year and activate my Family Medical Leave - unpaid. Since I already have a preschooler who picks up every germ at preschool, I usually use up at least five of my sick days on staying home with her in the first semester, so I'm left with 5 paid days off...seems a little skeet to me. After bouncing back and forth on what to do, we decided that we couldn't afford for me to take off time unpaid and decided to stick with one child for the moment. While we may have come to that conclusion anyway, I resent the fact that it was initiated by a policy (or lack thereof) by my employer.

And in regards to maternity leave being called entitlements? Seems to me the companys are the entitled ones...and since when is time off for a woman to heal - physically and emotionally - from a complex experience considered asking a company to provide for a family's needs? Also, many women don't even get the opportunity to negotiate their salary upon being hired let alone several times a year. So kudos to Trev for being so self-sufficient and organized, but his/her story is, unfortunately, not the story of most women considering maternity leave.

Notions of Identity

Does the wilderness have any company benefits?

Elana Centor — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:34:19 -0500

Is paid vacation an entitlement? What about contributions to retirement plans? How about health or dental insurance?

Unless you are self-employed, there's a good chance that the company you work for provides at least one of these benefits.My belief is that maternity leave should be added to those benefits because its good fo our society and ultimatley its good for business.

Ironically, I am self-employed and definitely live in the wilderness because all the entitlements I receive, are funded by me, But that doesn't change my belief that if I had an employee ( and I have in the past) I would give them paid maternity leave.

To deny women maternity leave, forces them to make a choice that men do not have to make: career vs. family.

no one should have to make that choice,

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness

Out in the Wilderness

Trev — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:49:43 -0500

There is a small but gritty minority of us who bristle at the notion of "entitlements," including maternity leave. Seriously, when did we all get to the point where we reasonably expect everybody else to pick up the tab for us? I stopped doing that once I moved out from my parent's house, and its insulting to think that as an adult I now suddenly need a company to provide for the needs of my family.

I negotiate my compensation during the hiring process, and at several points in each year. If I can't manage my own resources (time, talent, energy, money) well enough to provide for my own needs, why should anybody else? Maybe I need to buy less expensive wine when we're out at dinner. Maybe I drive a used car instead of the brand new one. Maybe I buy a smaller house, and forego the McMansion.

But at least I have the satisfaction and peace that comes from doing for myself, and forcing nobody else to foot the bill.

For those of us out in the wilderness, Cheers!

Trev

http://elliotts.eachday.com

What's this fuss about?

snigdhasen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:10:18 -0500

I agree with you that some expenses MUST be fixed.

Seriously, I've never understood how people (or businesses) can complain about maternity leave.

As long as women are the only way for us to have children, There Is No Alternative! Is that so hard to understand?

An "off the job injury"? "INJURY"? What's wrong with these people?

What's next -- you cannot leave your cubicle to visit the loo because it's time off? You cannot go out for a smoke?

I'd like to see that happen...

Maternity Leave Going The Way Of The $2.00 Gallon Of Gas

Elana Centor — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:18:36 -0500

Back in the day when I was an actual reporter, people used to complain to me that the only "news" we covered was "bad news"-- the Arab Oil Embargo, double digit inflation, Watergate Hearings.

It feels like Deja Vu All Over Again. For the past several weeks all I can think about its doom and gloom.

I see no reason to write stories. With rising gas prices, tanking home prices, tainted tomatoes and then there are those pesky conversations with consultants who are telling me that work is drying up, I'm not smiling.

So it is in this rather cranky mood that I read about American businesses are "downsizing" maternity leave. There are some expenses that should just be fixed. I am firmly in the camp that maternity leave should be paid--at all levels of employment.

In other countries --do I dare go there---this isn't even a conversation because paid maternity leave is good for society. It's good for families and its ultimately good for business.In some countries maternity leave is funded through a cooperation between the government, business and employees to take all the burden off the small business owner. There are creative solutions that do not include reducing these benefits.

But alas and alack, that seems to be the way American business is going. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, in a piece called Downsizing Maternity Leave: Employers Cut Pay, Time Off Sue Shellenbarger reports,

Employers are cutting back on post-childbirth pay for mothers and offering shorter leaves, on average, for both moms and dads, compared with a decade ago. This comes despite research showing attentive nurturing has particular developmental power in a baby's first year, and that longer leaves can ease postpartum depression in some mothers. The pattern heightens the need for parents to plan carefully for time off post-childbirth.

Michelle Goodman, who blogs at Nine To Thrive, responded to that piece with Honey, they shrunk my maternity leave!

I don't have any kids of my own, unless you count this guy, but I watched with great curiosity as a close friend recently had her first kid at 40. Both she and her husband work full time, and while the non-profit agency she works for gave her 16 weeks' maternity leave, it was mainly on her dime.

Yesterday, Wall Street Journal Work & Family columnist Sue Shellenbarger wrote about how employers are "downsizing" both the length of and compensation for maternity leave, in an effort to boost the bottom line. Blame the rising cost of disability, which is largely how employers compensate moms on maternity leave, Shellenbarger notes.

To offset three, four, and sometimes six or more months of unpaid maternity leave, Shellenbarger writes, expecting parents rely on mommy-to-be's sick days and vacation days, as well as loans and credit cards. I agree with Shellenbarger that going into debt before you've even started the college fund is a bad idea, and that buckling down and saving as much extra cash as you can is a far better option. (However, I sincerely doubt that having to forego "new cars, big house, and pricey Jimmy Choo shoes" like one expecting mom she interviewed is a universal problem; we should all be so lucky to have those be our "tough cuts.")

Jennifer Merritt who writes The Juggle - a WSJ blog piggybacks on Sue Schellenbarger's article with a look at a growing trend- people taking part time jobs to finance their maternity leave.

According to the column, “Only 16% of employers offer full pay for childbirth leave, down from 27% in 1998, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,100 employers by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute.” The column also says that 23% of parents used credit cards or loans to finance leave, according to a recent online survey.
A friend of mine, another New Yorker, recently told me that she was taking on 20 hours a month of freelance work, on top of her full-time job, so that she would have money saved for a longer maternity leave for her yet-to-be conceived second child. Her company offers three weeks of fully-paid leave and the next two-to-four weeks at half-pay. After that she can take more time, unpaid.

Some people might argue that she and her husband should wait until they’re financially better-off to have another child, but it’s not the child they can’t afford, it’s the time off. They live within their means and are saving plenty for retirement and she and her husband have well-paying — but not investment-banking salary — professional jobs. I thought she was unusual — until she told me that she found out about the gig from another dad in the neighborhood who puts in 50 hours a week at his day job and does freelance on the side to pad the kids’ college funds.

At the same time this news was breaking, the State of Massachusetts just announced that men are now entitled to equal maternity leave to women. It is considered a "bombshell announcement."

Originally, the MMLA provided female employees with eight weeks of leave relating to the birth or adoption of a child. Recognizing the disparate treatment that the MMLA created, the MCAD Guidelines warned that "an employer who provides leave to female employees only, and not to male employees, may violate the federal prohibitions against sex discrimination even though the employer has acted in compliance with the MMLA" (See Answer 11).
MCAD Commissioner, Martin Ebel, defended the change as not only necessary to ensure equal treatment between male and female employees, but also to guarantee equality between same-sex couples:

Meanwhile women police officers in Detroit are suing over their department's maternity leave policy.

Female police officers in Detroit often hide their pregnancies because they face the prospect of unpaid leave. The Detroit Police Department designates pregnancy an “off the job injury” and requires pregnant officers to leave their positions until after they have given birth. A state legislator has introduced a bill that would overturn the policy and the department faces possible legal action by an officer who was forced to take unpaid leave. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080606/METRO/

Until govermental agencies stop thinking of pregancy as an "off the job injury" and until corporations stop dumping maternity leave in their "disability pool" this outrageous attitude towards maternity leave will continue. It's not rationale. It's not enlightened. And, it's definitely not good for our country.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness