Maternity leave. It can be such a controversial subject and an area for improved benefits with minimal cost to the company. An employer has many considerations to weigh when establishing a maternity policy: to have or have not, to pay or not to pay.
In Massachusetts, the debate just got easier. Boston.com reported that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court clarified in a 4-to-3 ruling this month that the 1972 Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act provides job protection for full-time employees who take up to eight weeks off to give birth or to adopt a child, after which they are entitled to return to the same job or a comparable one.
I’m recently returning from maternity leave, so the new ruling from the Massachusetts SJC piqued my interest. Fortunately, I was protected by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, since I’ve worked at least 1,250 hours in the last 12 months and my employer has far more than the requisite 50 employees. Under FMLA, employees may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in cases where an employee or a relative is sick, for maternity leave and for some other qualifying events. The Massachusetts ruling effectively extends protections to those taking maternity leave at smaller companies that aren’t covered under FLMA. How would I be impacted if I choose to have another child within the next 12 months?
State and federal protections can pale in comparison to the job protections offered in other countries for maternity leave. While the U.S. government requires employers to offer some amount of unpaid maternity leave, other nations not only mandate leave, but they also mandate that employees are paid during their maternity leave.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a study of 21 countries, six provide a total of at least two years of protected leave. They are France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Austria. Six others provide protection for more than a year. They included Australia, Canada and Denmark. I wonder how many folks could afford to take a year or more of unpaid leave. I think far too few, especially in the United States, one of the only industrialized nations to offer no protected right to some paid maternity leave.
In an improving economy where retention may become an issue, this could be an opportunity for companies to improve their benefit plans to include maternity or parental leave. While it has little impact to the bottom line, it can act as an enticing perk to a large portion of employees – similar to extra vacation time or flex time.
Recent Comments