hired a young lady in Feb of 2022 who quickly got pregnant by her new husband. I am not sure what is the norm when it comes to pregnancy. I understand the FMLA rules but she does not have a short term disability policy for the time she will have to take off. When she gave me the news at the first of year I explained that she will definitely get paid for her 3 weeks of vacation/sick and we may add a fourth week. She has since then missed 3 or 4 days already in 2023 for various reasons (It doesn't really seem to be pregnancy related). We spoke again yesterday and I warned her she is on track to have very few days left when August arrives at this pace. She then proceeds to say she thought she was getting an extra 4 weeks of paid leave on top the already 3 weeks for vacation/sick leave...a total of 7 weeks of paid leave. Is that normal for the millennials and GEN Zs to expect that amount of paid leave for getting pregnant? Are companies really doing that and basically rewarding pregnancies? We are a small business with only 11 employees so I am trying to wrap my head around what is now the norm. I basically told her the older ladies in the office would cut my throat or maybe even my balls off if I gave her that sort of payout during her time off considering what they received in the 80s and 90s when they had children.
Question for those in HR or management of benefits etc,....I haven't had to deal with this in over 15 years. We
- Thread starter InsureDawg02
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I’m 31. I would agree with her expectation. 7 weeks would be on the very low end of a corporate job for a woman these days (paternity is different, but still expected for at least 2-3 weeks). In the Fortune 500, I think the absolute minimum expectation is 12 weeks. If you only give her three weeks and take it from her vacation/sick leave, I’d expect you’d be looking for a new employee soon.
I wouldn‘t mention the cutting off of the balls by the older secretaries people are too sensitive. This generation are easily bruised. Better to say they’d throw a bitch fit.
You need to speak to counsel. You're going to get a lot of bad advice in this thread lol
(But, yes, it's not uncommon for people to get/want 7-8 weeks of mat leave)
A lot of companies are doing up to 12 weeks
Step 1 is consult with a lawyer on what family leave requirements are in your locale. Step 2 is to understand your female employees will be overjoyed at the new mother’s time off whatever it is. You better embrace it. Step 3 is to totally forget the past and do not express attitude nor comment on your impending castration to anyone. Advise buying the lady a nice baby shower gift as fall back. Godspeed.
It’s common practice now. The men get that much at my company for paternity leave.
It might be for your biz with 11 employees (or any small biz like yours), but it's more and more common for medium and large employers.
We haven't even gotten to paid pat leave which might really blow your mind
No legal advise but: If you think this is going to be a valuable employee moving forward, I would give to her. As you know, great help is tough to find and also bad "pr" within company could be bad.. Then Id define my compnay policies rolling forward.
My company gave me 3 weeks of paid leave as a father. I've never been so ready to return to the office! 
My Company has offered it for almost 10 years now.
I guess the corporate world has its perks as long as you can avoid massive layoffs etc I would lose three employees if I gave a one year employee 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.
Talk to your insurance provider; see what is up and going forward.
But good advice, times have changed. The Paternity is another matter especially for small companies,
This isn't about you, OP, but it's just a very interesting issue the difference in these two types of people:
1. I had it hard, so you have to have it hard
2. I had it hard, so I hope that those who follow me don't have it so bad
Says tons about those 2 types of people, both good and bad. I wouldn't want to work around type 1 people anyway.
Yep same here. Got 8 weeks of paternity for my youngest and they changed the policy recently to 12 weeks for both parents
I know some companies giving 4 months off to both parents.
Yeah...I agree I need to put this all on paper going forward. 6 months ago she was single and this wasn't really on the radar as a possibility.
4 months of paid leave? That almost seems unreal. I am going to likely have to hire a temp as well for the 12 weeks she will be gone if she takes it all. A small businessowner would be better off hiring 40 plus year old women to avoid the issue.
I had the exact same experience, down to the number of weeks.
Not surprising though - it’s best practice and a huge employee retention tool.
I would suggest you do some best practice research for a firm your size.
But yes, big employers are commonly giving new mother AND fathers extended paid leave when they have children.
12 weeks? LULZ
Having said that, I feel like this should all be in writing and everyone on the same page before someone accepts the job.
Having said that, I feel like this should all be in writing and everyone on the same page before someone accepts the job.
My wife has an employee that has been a surrogate twice in “for profit pregnancies”.
That’s been a fun HR process.
The country has changed in a short period of time. If I can get through another 5-10 years I hope to be hanging it up anyway. HR nightmares like the one you mention and the new aged employee's expectations and drive are another reason my main stock investments these days are in robotics and AI companies.
Regarding FMLA requirements for Georgia: Employees are eligible for leave if they have worked for their employer at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.
Any paid leave is according to an individual company's policies.
Any paid leave is according to an individual company's policies.
I’m not sure If its changed too much or just a normal evolution and change.
Gotta remember that Adoption agencies were “stealing” and selling babies in the 1950s. Now we just have better technology and are aware it’s happening.
Life is a just always adjusting.
There's a lot to unpack here, but here goes:
Your question can be summed up with what you have to provide vs. what you want to or should provide. From a legal perspective, FMLA does NOT guarantee any paid parental leave, it only guarantees that you are able to keep your job or a job of equal stature. However, FMLA is only required for companies larger than 50 employees AND if the employee has been employed longer than 12 months. It sounds like you're a very small business, so FMLA isn't guaranteed here anyway.
There is no law that says you must provide paid parental leave (maternity/primary caregiver or paternity/secondary caregiver). Sure, a lot of companies offer paid parental leave, and that varies greatly, but nothing is legally required.
Legally, you are allowed to tell her she can only use her PTO. I would be careful with operating under different circumstances for this person vs. other people in your employment as you open yourselves up to discrimination claims if you're offering her something different than what others have received.
For short-term disability, that would kick in with maternity leave, but only if she voluntarily elected it herself, as you've already stated that it's not provided by the company and she doesn't have that policy herself.
My last question for you is, what is stated in your handbook, is there anything specifically stated in regards to Parental Leave? You could always look at the option of having other employees voluntarily give up some of their PTO to this woman, but you'd need to offer that up to everyone going forward and put that into your policy/handbook going forward.
Hope this helps!
Your question can be summed up with what you have to provide vs. what you want to or should provide. From a legal perspective, FMLA does NOT guarantee any paid parental leave, it only guarantees that you are able to keep your job or a job of equal stature. However, FMLA is only required for companies larger than 50 employees AND if the employee has been employed longer than 12 months. It sounds like you're a very small business, so FMLA isn't guaranteed here anyway.
There is no law that says you must provide paid parental leave (maternity/primary caregiver or paternity/secondary caregiver). Sure, a lot of companies offer paid parental leave, and that varies greatly, but nothing is legally required.
Legally, you are allowed to tell her she can only use her PTO. I would be careful with operating under different circumstances for this person vs. other people in your employment as you open yourselves up to discrimination claims if you're offering her something different than what others have received.
For short-term disability, that would kick in with maternity leave, but only if she voluntarily elected it herself, as you've already stated that it's not provided by the company and she doesn't have that policy herself.
My last question for you is, what is stated in your handbook, is there anything specifically stated in regards to Parental Leave? You could always look at the option of having other employees voluntarily give up some of their PTO to this woman, but you'd need to offer that up to everyone going forward and put that into your policy/handbook going forward.
Hope this helps!
If things quit changing we would be in for a world of hurt. Those most receptive to change tend to be the happiest people. My first boss told me when I was too young to understand, "that the only thing that stays the same is that things change."
Yeah, I took something like 12 weeks when my youngest was born in 2021.
IIRC, it was 2 weeks of caregiver leave, 2 weeks of PTO, 8 weeks paternity.
Thanks...That seems to be what I have read when it relates to a business our size. Our employee handbook (circa 2004) states that paid time will be based on remaining PTO. I know things have changed and I am adding additional days to her PTO due to the pregnancy. She has only been here a year and we have some employees that have been here 30 plus years that did not get those benefits of course so it is a balancing act. Last year our longest tenured employee had a surgery that went wrong. She also did not elect to have a short term disability policy in place so we worked with here while she was out an extended period of time. She is making up the time missed by working some Saturdays etc for a few hours and her paycheck continued during the time she was in recovery. I think all of them know we will take care of them if something unexpected occurs.
My wife worked at a smallish law firm (definitely not a huge corporation) when pregnant with our oldest. She got 6 weeks of paid leave on top of any vacation, short term disability was expected to cover the rest. Which she had so we were good.
You should talk to a lawyer and stop complaining about changing times in writing on the internet. This statement is prime evidence for a discrimination lawsuit.
