Guest jnicks Posted April 24, 2012 Posted April 24, 2012 hello - working on our maternity leave policy. we are a company of 30 people. are there any surveys of what small businesses are offering? can anyone share their policy if they are under 50 ee's and FMLA does not apply? thanks!
Guest Hellolost Posted April 25, 2012 Posted April 25, 2012 hello - working on our maternity leave policy. we are a company of 30 people. are there any surveys of what small businesses are offering? can anyone share their policy if they are under 50 ee's and FMLA does not apply? thanks! It depends on what state you are in. For example in California we have Paid Family Leave (different them FMLA) Qualifying for PFL In order to qualify for PFL, you'll need to meet the following criteria: You must reside in California. You must have contributed to State Disability Insurance, an automatic deduction from most people's pay checks. You must be taking time off to bond with a newborn, a foster child, or an adopted child, or to care for an ill family member. You will need a doctor's note to support your claim. Explanation of Benefits If you qualify for PFL, you can receive the up to six weeks' worth of wages at a reduced level. Typically, this can be as much as two-thirds of your regular income during this period. Benefits are paid on a sliding scale, which means that lower income earners will receive a higher percentage of their income in benefits. For instance, a person who earns only $75 per week can receive a payment of $50 per week, roughly 67% of his or her income. A person who earns $3500 per week will only receive about $149 weekly, about 4% of his or her income. There are a few other important things to consider regarding the PFL benefit: There is a week-long waiting period before your benefits will begin. You can take your PFL benefit in bits and pieces. You don't need to take six consecutive weeks off of work. Your employer may have you use your vacation time or sick days before you begin receiving your PFL benefits. Both parents may take PFL at the same time, or they may stagger their leaves. How to Claim PFL Your employer does not pay PFL benefits. Instead, the State of California handles these payments and approves your application. To apply for PFL, visit the State of California Employment Development Department website or call 1-877-238-4373. In regards to what other companies are doing it varies. Some offer non paid maternity leave. (they can use sick or vacation time) Some offer paid maternity. (Your choice of how long) All in all it really depends on your state.
Guest jnicks Posted April 26, 2012 Posted April 26, 2012 thanks for your reply. we are in illinois, so no PFL either. what i'm really trying to figure out is what companies under 50 are allowing the employees to take off - including unpaid time. I know that FMLA allows 12 weeks but since we are under 50, FMLA doesn't apply. So, for smaller businesses, what is the total time off allowed (including unpaid time)? thanks! hello - working on our maternity leave policy. we are a company of 30 people. are there any surveys of what small businesses are offering? can anyone share their policy if they are under 50 ee's and FMLA does not apply? thanks! It depends on what state you are in. For example in California we have Paid Family Leave (different them FMLA) Qualifying for PFL In order to qualify for PFL, you'll need to meet the following criteria: You must reside in California. You must have contributed to State Disability Insurance, an automatic deduction from most people's pay checks. You must be taking time off to bond with a newborn, a foster child, or an adopted child, or to care for an ill family member. You will need a doctor's note to support your claim. Explanation of Benefits If you qualify for PFL, you can receive the up to six weeks' worth of wages at a reduced level. Typically, this can be as much as two-thirds of your regular income during this period. Benefits are paid on a sliding scale, which means that lower income earners will receive a higher percentage of their income in benefits. For instance, a person who earns only $75 per week can receive a payment of $50 per week, roughly 67% of his or her income. A person who earns $3500 per week will only receive about $149 weekly, about 4% of his or her income. There are a few other important things to consider regarding the PFL benefit: There is a week-long waiting period before your benefits will begin. You can take your PFL benefit in bits and pieces. You don't need to take six consecutive weeks off of work. Your employer may have you use your vacation time or sick days before you begin receiving your PFL benefits. Both parents may take PFL at the same time, or they may stagger their leaves. How to Claim PFL Your employer does not pay PFL benefits. Instead, the State of California handles these payments and approves your application. To apply for PFL, visit the State of California Employment Development Department website or call 1-877-238-4373. In regards to what other companies are doing it varies. Some offer non paid maternity leave. (they can use sick or vacation time) Some offer paid maternity. (Your choice of how long) All in all it really depends on your state.
Guest matthew222 Posted April 27, 2012 Posted April 27, 2012 It's going to vary widely for small companies. Depends on industry, total number of employees, how easy it is to cover another employee's job, etc. If you had a short-term disability policy, the carrier would typically pay benefits for 6-8 weeks, depending on the type of delivery and assuming there aren't any complications. Since you aren't subject to FMLA, it's really your call. I would imagine that if you don't provide any time off for female employees while on a standard maternity leave it's not going to help when it comes to attracting and retaining employees. By the way, you can always set up a paid-time off policy to mirror FMLA. Again, it's going to depend on your company.
GMK Posted April 27, 2012 Posted April 27, 2012 FWIW, some general thoughts: I second the idea of using FMLA as the model for setting up your leave policy. You don't have to include all or even any of the features now, but if your policy is similar, it will be easier to adopt FMLA when you grow to 50 people. For reference, significant features of FMLA are that: - the leave is job-protected. Employees are assured that they will return to their previous job (or one of identical pay, importance, etc.) - health insurance coverage continues during the leave if the employee pays her/his share of the premiums. If health coverage stops during the leave, eligibility for coverage is restored upon return from FMLA leave. - FMLA leave is unpaid, but employees can generally substitute paid leave they have accumulated to receive pay during the leave. There can be restrictions on when paid sick leave can be used, but that's a detail. What you want to do is decide how much time you are willing to allow for maternity leave (which becomes maternity/paternity leave under FMLA), if any of it will be paid leave (FMLA is unpaid) and/or if employees can use their other paid time (vacation, sick, personal) during the leave. You'll want to consider whether to job protect the leave (your choice) and whether you will restore health coverage if there is a break in coverage (talk to the insurer about this). You are pretty much free to set the policy as you wish, as long as you apply it in a non-discriminatory manner. Maternity leave can be a plus for attracting job applicants. An extended leave may or may not disrupt your work flow. The length of the leave you allow may be from a few days to several weeks. While federal FMLA is 12 weeks of leave per year for any and all reasons combined, some states have FMLA's with other formats. Your neighbors in Wisconsin, for example, have a state policy with 6 weeks of leave for birth or adoption and 2 weeks for serious medical conditions.
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