Anonymous wrote:Women of child-bearing age should purchase their own insurance to pay them for their maternity leave but the US taxpayer should not subsidize your leave or your child care.

Why should US taxpayers subsidize you? The only reason we don’t have paid leave is because our laws and benefits were designed by men. It’s in our country’s best interest to support women having children AND working. Unless you want most children in this country born to the demographic that doesn’t need paid leave...those already living off the government. Not to mention not having paid leave is an unfair burden to women. Women can’t help that only women give birth.

Seriously you’re on the wrong side of history and need to do some soul searching. In 50 years saying you don’t support maternity leave will be like saying you don’t. Support desegregated schools.

Women of child-bearing age should purchase their own insurance to pay them for their maternity leave but the US taxpayer should not subsidize your leave or your child care.

I have a very small business. No way could I cover this. I would have to cut everyone's pay with the assumption that they will use this benefit and save for the time it t is needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nannies, cleaning ladies, and tutors are not "your" employees. They typically work for a nanny service, cleaning company like merry maids, etc. and you are just the customer.

I work in sales, that's like asking why one of my many clients at work aren't asking for paid leave for me.

+1


I'm not their employer.

As a customer, the best I can do is try to vet that the company that I am a client of treats their employees well (which I do).

Many people hire nannies and cleaning ladies directly. But even if they hire through a company, the person still does work for them. The fact that they receive a paycheck are from someone else is just matter of accounting.

It's just so very interesting that people believe that their company has a moral obligation to pay them maternity leave benefits but then they turn around and deny maternity pay to people who work for them..

+1 I know a bunch of people with nannies, but I don't know anyone who hired through an agency (unless it was a temporary need). They are without a doubt your employees. I do get irritated when I see moms on listservs saying they can't afford to pay maternity leave to their nannies even though they would like to. It's part of what being a responsible employer is about, even if the employer has to make sacrifices to do so.

I think the OP here is confusing employer-sponsored maternity leave with tax-payer sponsored maternity leave. Paying your nanny's maternity leave would be employer-sponsored maternity leave, and I'm not sure that's what most people have in mind for a nationwide maternity policy.

What irks me is the employers that benefit from having unpaid maternity leave. They basically get a free 12 weeks, other employees cover the work and then the employee comes back and works extra hard to finish the work.

Anonymous wrote:What incentive does a family have to pay for 12-weeks of maternity leave for a nanny? I know it's the nice (maybe moral?) thing to do, but personally, if I were employing a nanny and the expectation was that I had to pay that person's maternity leave if they got pregnant, I would just hire someone beyond childbearing age. I don't know how I would even afford to pay a nanny's maternity leave AND pay another nanny for 3 months.

And that is exactly the way most employers feel.

Anonymous wrote:What incentive does a family have to pay for 12-weeks of maternity leave for a nanny? I know it's the nice (maybe moral?) thing to do, but personally, if I were employing a nanny and the expectation was that I had to pay that person's maternity leave if they got pregnant, I would just hire someone beyond childbearing age. I don't know how I would even afford to pay a nanny's maternity leave AND pay another nanny for 3 months.

So if you have a cleaning lady once a month how are you supposed to contribute to her maternity? or health benefits? or retirement? Mine is a solo contractor, has her own LLC. Presumably she is pricing her business model in line with what she needs. How is it different from a CPA and other solo shops?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The majority of DCUM is white collar office jobs. They force the rest of the employees to cover the woman while she's on maternity leave. It costs those companies next to nothing to offer maternity leave.

If my nanny wanted 12 weeks paid, I would have to hire a $$$ temp worker for 12 weeks.

It costs a lot in employee morale as other employees resent doing your job without extra pay. If other employees can divvy up your work then you are just extra baggage and no longer needed.

The last sentence is incorrect. the work is divvied up by management and is done at the cost of unpaid extra hours by other team members. it works for 12 weeks but would never work for a year or longer.

Anonymous wrote:I have a small business, fewer than 25 employees, and in the beginning I gave four months FULLY PAID maternity leave. I had two women take the leave and then send their resignation when the paid leave ran out. I no longer offer paid maternity leave and if there is a choice between a woman of child-bearing age or older woman, I hire the older woman. Today's young women think an employer owes them a perfect life. NEWSFLASH! We owe you a salary for performing the job you were hired to do, nothing more.

Why not offer the benefit the same way you'd offer tuition reimbursement? You have to have been in the position for a period of time, and agree to stay for a period after returning or you pay it back?

What incentive does a family have to pay for 12-weeks of maternity leave for a nanny? I know it's the nice (maybe moral?) thing to do, but personally, if I were employing a nanny and the expectation was that I had to pay that person's maternity leave if they got pregnant, I would just hire someone beyond childbearing age. I don't know how I would even afford to pay a nanny's maternity leave AND pay another nanny for 3 months.

So OP you got your answer. Predictably, DCUM moms think paid maternity leave is something women should be fighting for, except of course for the women they don't think count.

Anonymous wrote:I have a small business, fewer than 25 employees, and in the beginning I gave four months FULLY PAID maternity leave. I had two women take the leave and then send their resignation when the paid leave ran out. I no longer offer paid maternity leave and if there is a choice between a woman of child-bearing age or older woman, I hire the older woman. Today's young women think an employer owes them a perfect life. NEWSFLASH! We owe you a salary for performing the job you were hired to do, nothing more.

+10000 The issue is the entitlement and the assumption that they should somehow be compensated for having a child AND still have a job to return to at their leisure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It should not even be a debate. It should be a standard benefit like short term disability.

Now clearly, not everyone is eligible for short term disability. But if your company has STD, you should have paid time to recover from child birth. I had a 4th degree tear, there was NO way I could have gone to work for at least 6 weeks.

So it should be just like a short term disability coverage where you are paid for 6-8 weeks post birth.

I was lucky that my company's short term disability DID cover 5 weeks of leave for me. But that is very clearly the exception and not the rule.

So my question is would YOU buy short term disability insurance for your employees? Or would you pay them if they needed to be on short term disability?

It should be covered under short term disability plans. So yes, I buy into that. But maternity coverage does not need to be "extra". It can follow the same guidelines. But I don't understand how someone who gets their gall bladder removed is covered but someone who has a BABY removed with a c-section is not. It's ludicrous.

My company's short term disability insurance plan does cover having a baby. It kicks in and pays at a certain % of salary after the two weeks maternity leave the company provides are up.