PaidParentalLeave
08/11/2020 09:19
Subject: Re:Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
OPM has posted an interim rule on paid parental leave [1] to the Federal Register for publication on August 10. This is the guidance agencies will use to craft their parental leave policies.
For those that were hoping for the leave to be retroactive...things do not look good. As stated in the original Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (in Section 7602 of the NDAA [2]), any birth before October 1 will not get leave. This is clearly reflected in the OPM guidance. Unfortunately, there is no way to waive this requirement as it is law. The only way to change this is through another act of Congress.
To enact change, I suggest that you reach out to your representatives [3] and senators [4] via phone, sign the following petition [5], and leave a comment on the interim final rule [6]. Ask to be put in contact with someone that works on these issues. I have been doing this for a number of Congress members for a couple months using some arguments [7] I put together a while ago. I would definitely recommend reaching out to Carolyn Maloney [8] as she is the main Congress member who is actively fighting [9] to make this leave retroactive and crafted the original legislation.
[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2020-14832
[2] https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s1790/BILLS-116s1790enr.pdf
[3] https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
[4] https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
[5] https://www.change.org/p/federal-employee-paid-leave-act-paid-maternity-leave-for-government-employees-due-before-october-1st-2020
[6] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/10/2020-14832/paid-parental-leave#open-comment
[7] https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hFss28N1By7orQZY_4DmdGxnfJfocVC/view?usp=sharing
[8] https://maloney.house.gov/contact-carolyn
[9] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/benefits/2020/05/house-democrats-call-for-retroactive-expansion-of-paid-parental-leave-to-federal-employees/
For those that were hoping for the leave to be retroactive...things do not look good. As stated in the original Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (in Section 7602 of the NDAA [2]), any birth before October 1 will not get leave. This is clearly reflected in the OPM guidance. Unfortunately, there is no way to waive this requirement as it is law. The only way to change this is through another act of Congress.
To enact change, I suggest that you reach out to your representatives [3] and senators [4] via phone, sign the following petition [5], and leave a comment on the interim final rule [6]. Ask to be put in contact with someone that works on these issues. I have been doing this for a number of Congress members for a couple months using some arguments [7] I put together a while ago. I would definitely recommend reaching out to Carolyn Maloney [8] as she is the main Congress member who is actively fighting [9] to make this leave retroactive and crafted the original legislation.
[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2020-14832
[2] https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s1790/BILLS-116s1790enr.pdf
[3] https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
[4] https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
[5] https://www.change.org/p/federal-employee-paid-leave-act-paid-maternity-leave-for-government-employees-due-before-october-1st-2020
[6] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/10/2020-14832/paid-parental-leave#open-comment
[7] https://drive.google.com/file/d/15hFss28N1By7orQZY_4DmdGxnfJfocVC/view?usp=sharing
[8] https://maloney.house.gov/contact-carolyn
[9] https://federalnewsnetwork.com/benefits/2020/05/house-democrats-call-for-retroactive-expansion-of-paid-parental-leave-to-federal-employees/
Anonymous
05/11/2020 10:23
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
I really really really really hope this passes. But I'm not optimistic.
Anonymous
05/11/2020 07:53
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Anonymous wrote:
I also am happy for other families but we probably waited close to 9 months to start trying in hopes that this would go through. This is after saving every single hour of annual leave for 1.5 years to use for maternity leave. We can’t afford for me to take unpaid maternity leave. I’m happy to have extra leave now, but we sure did a ton of planning to make it work.
I wish it were that easy for all of us to plan our pregnancies, but unfortunately not everyone is so lucky. After struggling with infertility we were thrilled to get pregnant at all, and though we wouldn't change anything about the process that got us here, it is a shame that the difference of a few weeks on the calendar means that I won't benefit from the new paid leave policy.
Anonymous
05/11/2020 07:23
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow, too bad for all those couples who held off on trying to get pregnant so they could take a paid maternity leave
Honsetly this is a pretty small group of people. By holding off you are just trying to offset the risk of having a preemie baby. Because I'm bored I want to try to do some math to figure out how to quantify this.
I was too lazy to find more recent statistics of the likelihood of giving birth during week ___ of pregnancy, but here are some old values from 2017:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/due-date-accurate.html
11% of babies are born before 37 weeks
26% of babies are born in 37-38 weeks
57% of babies are born in 39-40 weeks
6% of babies are born in 41 weeks
Now some dates of interest:
40 weeks (the average length of a pregnancy) before the effective date of October 1, 2020 puts you at December 26, 2019.
The Parental Leave Act became law on December 20, 2019.
So putting this all together:
If you conceived December 20 - December 26 then you have a 94% (100-6) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived December 27 - January 3 then you have a 37% (100-6-57) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived January 4 - January 18 then you have a 11% (100-6-57-26) chance of missing out on the leave
So what can we conclude? That if you heard about the legislation on December 20, 2019 and then waited one month to try to conceive, then you are pretty damn likely to receive the parental leave (with a 89% chance).
I don't feel too bad for those people that had to wait a month to try to conceive.
Not sure why you’d assume folks would only hear about it In Dec. The bill was introduced in the summer I think. We followed it and it influenced our timing as a dual fed family. We were hopeful and knew we’d find out either way since it was in the NDAA. We ended up waiting many months to start trying. That being said, I’d be thrilled if other families get paid leave retroactively.
I also am happy for other families but we probably waited close to 9 months to start trying in hopes that this would go through. This is after saving every single hour of annual leave for 1.5 years to use for maternity leave. We can’t afford for me to take unpaid maternity leave. I’m happy to have extra leave now, but we sure did a ton of planning to make it work.
Anonymous
05/10/2020 23:24
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wow, too bad for all those couples who held off on trying to get pregnant so they could take a paid maternity leave
Honsetly this is a pretty small group of people. By holding off you are just trying to offset the risk of having a preemie baby. Because I'm bored I want to try to do some math to figure out how to quantify this.
I was too lazy to find more recent statistics of the likelihood of giving birth during week ___ of pregnancy, but here are some old values from 2017:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/due-date-accurate.html
11% of babies are born before 37 weeks
26% of babies are born in 37-38 weeks
57% of babies are born in 39-40 weeks
6% of babies are born in 41 weeks
Now some dates of interest:
40 weeks (the average length of a pregnancy) before the effective date of October 1, 2020 puts you at December 26, 2019.
The Parental Leave Act became law on December 20, 2019.
So putting this all together:
If you conceived December 20 - December 26 then you have a 94% (100-6) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived December 27 - January 3 then you have a 37% (100-6-57) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived January 4 - January 18 then you have a 11% (100-6-57-26) chance of missing out on the leave
So what can we conclude? That if you heard about the legislation on December 20, 2019 and then waited one month to try to conceive, then you are pretty damn likely to receive the parental leave (with a 89% chance).
I don't feel too bad for those people that had to wait a month to try to conceive.
Not sure why you’d assume folks would only hear about it In Dec. The bill was introduced in the summer I think. We followed it and it influenced our timing as a dual fed family. We were hopeful and knew we’d find out either way since it was in the NDAA. We ended up waiting many months to start trying. That being said, I’d be thrilled if other families get paid leave retroactively.
Anonymous
05/09/2020 18:56
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
What do we think the chances are of this actually happening?
It is hard to say, but the more support you give the better. I suggest that you reach out to your representatives (https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative) and senators (https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm) via phone. Ask to be put in contact with someone that works on parental leave issues. I would definitely recommend reaching out to Carolyn Maloney (https://maloney.house.gov/contact-carolyn) as she is the Congress member who sponsored the original Paid Parental Leave Act and is actively fighting to support federal workers with kids.
Anonymous
05/09/2020 18:48
Subject: Re:Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
This is potentially so exciting for those of us due in the next few months (and who got pregnant well before paid leave was enacted in December 
!).
What do we think the chances are of this actually happening? It would follow the precedent set by the military service branches to make the benefit retroactive to the date the law was passed. And especially now given the many unknowns around covid, I would really appreciate the guaranteed time at home for me and the baby...
!).
What do we think the chances are of this actually happening? It would follow the precedent set by the military service branches to make the benefit retroactive to the date the law was passed. And especially now given the many unknowns around covid, I would really appreciate the guaranteed time at home for me and the baby...
Anonymous
05/09/2020 15:08
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Anonymous wrote:Wow, too bad for all those couples who held off on trying to get pregnant so they could take a paid maternity leave
Honsetly this is a pretty small group of people. By holding off you are just trying to offset the risk of having a preemie baby. Because I'm bored I want to try to do some math to figure out how to quantify this.
I was too lazy to find more recent statistics of the likelihood of giving birth during week ___ of pregnancy, but here are some old values from 2017:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/due-date-accurate.html
11% of babies are born before 37 weeks
26% of babies are born in 37-38 weeks
57% of babies are born in 39-40 weeks
6% of babies are born in 41 weeks
Now some dates of interest:
40 weeks (the average length of a pregnancy) before the effective date of October 1, 2020 puts you at December 26, 2019.
The Parental Leave Act became law on December 20, 2019.
So putting this all together:
If you conceived December 20 - December 26 then you have a 94% (100-6) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived December 27 - January 3 then you have a 37% (100-6-57) chance of missing out on the leave
If you conceived January 4 - January 18 then you have a 11% (100-6-57-26) chance of missing out on the leave
So what can we conclude? That if you heard about the legislation on December 20, 2019 and then waited one month to try to conceive, then you are pretty damn likely to receive the parental leave (with a 89% chance).
I don't feel too bad for those people that had to wait a month to try to conceive.
Anonymous
05/09/2020 09:00
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Anonymous wrote:
Wow, too bad for all those couples who held off on trying to get pregnant so they could take a paid maternity leave
Why? Do they lose their paid parental leave if somehow this happens and other people get it too?
Anonymous
05/09/2020 07:40
Subject: Any Feds due before Oct 1 able to get paid mat leave?
Wow, too bad for all those couples who held off on trying to get pregnant so they could take a paid maternity leave