Employer Family Leave Family

Read your employer’s handbook or benefits statement to find out what kind of maternity leave your employer offers. You may be eligible for paid or unpaid maternity leave, short-term disability benefits, government-mandated family medical leave, or any combination of these. Some employers allow or require that you use up any vacation or sick time before other benefits take effect.

Disability Insurance

If your employer doesn’t provide disability insurance, get your own before you get pregnant. If your employer does provide insurance, but it’s not adequate, you might want to buy insurance in addition to what your employer offers. Whether you are buying disability insurance or looking more closely at the insurance your employer provides, ask the following questions:

  • Does the policy cover pregnancy complications?
  • Does it cover childbirth?
  • What is the waiting period before I can collect disability benefits?
  • How long can I collect benefits? (Six weeks is common.)
  • How much are the benefits? (Normally, they are a percentage of your regular pay.)

FMLA

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that requires employers to give employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:

  • Birth and care of a newborn child
  • Placement of a child for adoption or foster care
  • Care of an immediate family member with a serious health condition
  • Medical leave

The employer is required to continue any health insurance while the employee is on leave, but the leave is unpaid and no other benefits must be continued (although your employer may choose to do so voluntarily).

If you take family medical leave, your employer must give you your original job back or an equivalent job.

There are eligibility requirements for family medical leave under the FMLA. For more information on the FMLA, click here.