Maternity leave options - am I SOL?
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Anonymous
| I've been working for my small government contractor employer for 3 years. I am pregnant, due in October, and have been exploring my leave options. We don't receive much PTO, so that will only cover me for 1 week of pay. My company offers STD, but I didn't realize that it was something I had to sign up for (my previous employers gave it to everyone automatically). That was my stupidity, but regardless, I cannot sign up for it until open enrollment, which isn't until February of 2018. Company doesn't offer maternity leave or anything of that nature, but obviously complies with the FMLA law, so my job will be protected until I return. Can anyone think of any other options I may have, or am I basically SOL for getting paid while on leave? I really wanted to stay out for 3 months, but I don't know if we'll be able to manage without my income for 3 months. 6 weeks would be the minimum obvs. I researched private STD that I would purchase myself, but I haven't found an insurance company that will cover a preexisting condition. Anyone else face this issue? WWYD? |
Anonymous
| Start making cuts in your budget now to set aside some savings for the time that you will not be paid. If you and your spouse both have cars, drive uber, deprived pizzas, etc, now to boost income. |
dcmom
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| Sounds like you are SOL. Can your spouse/partner take time off too so baby has more time with a parent? |
Anonymous
|
I work for the government which doesn't have maternity leave or STD. I could buy a separate STD plan but for the ones that I looked at, you had to wait 12 months to be eligible for the benefits and I was already pregnant at that point.
I also worked for small govt contracting firms that had no maternity but had STD (I think it was weeks with part time pay). What some moms that I used to work with did was go back to work part time. That way you have some sort of a paycheck but you still have time with your child. Of course that presents another issue with childcare for the hours that you are working. I hope someone else can come up with a good suggestion for you. But as for me, once I use up my sick leave and vacation leave, I'm basically taking leave without pay. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thanks everyone. I have a freelance job that I can boost to save a little extra, and DH has done Uber before. Looks like our best bet is to just save to cover as much as we can (without dipping into our actual savings). |
Anonymous
Yep - DH can take 2 weeks. |
Anonymous
| That's what I had to do too and it sucked. It's even worse when you come back to work with zero sick leave. |
Anonymous
|
Hypothetically redo your taxes including your new deduction. Reduce your tax witholdings by the difference of what your and your husband paid last year and your new hypothetical amount that you'll pay next year with your child.
You could also reduce your retirement contributions if you need to. |
Anonymous
That's what savings is for, OP. |
Anonymous
Tis true. We've just never had to use it so I try not to think of it as disposable money! 
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Anonymous
| This is what happened to me and we didn't have any savings. Had to go back to work at 3 weeks. |
Anonymous
| Cut what you can now and stash it away to cover future bills. See about coming back after 6-8 part time if feasible. We stopped eating out, cut back cable, bought clean but used items for the nursery (only new things were the crib and car seat), check insurance to see about savings there, put gym memberships on hold, etc and so on. There are ways to cut and save and everything we put into savings which covered most of the bills while I was on leave. We did have a healthy savings account thanks to a condo sell that also funded the mortgage. |
Anonymous
| Do you live somewhere where you can dogsit? I made a hefty amount of cash doing that on weekends when I was trying to pay off student loans. |
Anonymous
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How small is your firm? Make sure they are legally obligated to FMLA.
Congrats! |
Anonymous
| It's truly shameful the way this country treats mothers. |