Maternity Leave Question(s)? Advice....

[gildo]

My wife is due in early October 2009, I know she can start her maternity leave 8 weeks before the due date (according to HRDC) so that puts us at August 2009 but she was hoping to actually only work until June and take June and July off without pay then start her maternity leave in August...now the question I have is if she takes time off without pay will this effect the bottom dollars she gets for her maternity leave? Cause her Record of employment will say she worked until say May 31st, 2009 etc. Just wanted some advice, there are a number of reasons why she wants to leave early and the main is so she can be with her grandmother who is quite ill and in the States. My wife makes not bad money so we were hoping she would get the maximum amount of dollars alloted for her maternity leave but will time off hinder that? (I know HRDC does some crazy calculations about unemployment rate etc.). As always, thanks in advance for any tips or help.

[Aeneas]

Perhaps your doctor may request that your wife leave work early. I believe that would start the EI earlier but then she would not have the 12 months after. I know of people that have taken vacation time earlier and I believe they were not penalized. Other than that they use the weeks without pay as part of the calculation.

wife of Aeneas

[RedHot25]

Yeah I think "wife of Aeneas" (too funny) is right. See if you can use some vacation time or sick days or something beforehand. Your doctor might be able to, as noted above, to get your wife to leave work early - due to "health" reasons, or "stress leave" or something of the sort.

Anyway, I would also suggest that you just call unemployment and see what they say aas well....

[pepper24]

Before you plan too far ahead and get too excited I'd wait until your wife does her 13 week ultrasound. Before that time, the rate of miscarriage is high then after your chances go down considerably. I'd only tell close family and avoid telling friends and co-workers until you hit 3 months. I have known too many friendss that have told everyone and bought all the baby gear to only be utterly disappointed. My personal experience we were tied lipped until that appointment, then went nuts.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Before you plan too far ahead and get too excited I'd wait until your wife does her 13 week ultrasound. Before that time, the rate of miscarriage is high then after your chances go down considerably. I'd only tell close family and avoid telling friends and co-workers until you hit 3 months. I have known too many friendss that have told everyone and bought all the baby gear to only be utterly disappointed. My personal experience we were tied lipped until that appointment, then went nuts.

Not that I have had personal experience with this, but based on what I do know, or have been taught you give sage advice.

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by RedHot25

Yeah I think "wife of Aeneas" (too funny) is right. See if you can use some vacation time or sick days or something beforehand. Your doctor might be able to, as noted above, to get your wife to leave work early - due to "health" reasons, or "stress leave" or something of the sort.

Anyway, I would also suggest that you just call unemployment and see what they say aas well....

Too funny as in you cannot imagine anyone wanting to be in a state of matrimony with me?

husband of wife of Aeneas

[tete]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Before you plan too far ahead and get too excited I'd wait until your wife does her 13 week ultrasound. Before that time, the rate of miscarriage is high then after your chances go down considerably. I'd only tell close family and avoid telling friends and co-workers until you hit 3 months. I have known too many friendss that have told everyone and bought all the baby gear to only be utterly disappointed. My personal experience we were tied lipped until that appointment, then went nuts.

While I'd strongly suggest that you don't tell coworkers/supervisors until 12 weeks - I firmly believe it's up to the individual about telling friends and family before that point. Some people feel that (god forbid) if something goes wrong, if they've told people, they'll have the support of their friends during what can be the most gut-wrenching point in their lives. Others feel the same way as Pepper and that it's awful to "untell" people. I've had friends lose babies at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 16 weeks, 20 weeks, 36 weeks - so at some point they told people and had to untell even after the 13 weeks for some of them - it is really up to you to decide what you want to do.

As for EI - you need 600 hours in the past 12 months to be eligible for mat leave. Don't forget that if you start collecting EI 8 weeks prior to the due date that your EI will end 8 weeks prior to your child's first birthday- you only get 52 weeks of mat leave/parental leave total. EI is calculated on a max of about $40K of earnings.

Congrats and good luck!

[RedHot25]

I hear what you are saying, tete, but I agree with Pepper on the 3 months thing. Its not a guarantee for after, but yes from my understanding it is significantly less likely for something to happen after that. We did the 3 months thing. So as it is up to the individual, I would recommend the 3 month thing myself (good catch pepper - I only skimmed the original post and missed that part).

I think getting the doctor to sign her off early is the only way to go. Because if she starts the mat leave early then her employer only has to hold her position open for a year from the start of her mat leave. Unless she has an AWESOME employer that'll let her go for an extra 2 months with out giving her position up.

As for the maximum $.... I thought I hear that the max $ was $750 every 2 weeks. I could be wrong tho.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

I think getting the doctor to sign her off early is the only way to go. Because if she starts the mat leave early then her employer only has to hold her position open for a year from the start of her mat leave. Unless she has an AWESOME employer that'll let her go for an extra 2 months with out giving her position up.

As for the maximum $.... I thought I hear that the max $ was $750 every 2 weeks. I could be wrong tho.

Starting in Jan 2008, I believe employers had to hold jobs for 2 years from the start of mat leave. My baby was born before that date though, so I am not 100% sure about the details.

I am fairly sure you are correct on the maximum amount. I have also heard that if you talk to EI, you can take normal EI instead of mat leave, which doubles the maximum amount, but EI only pays out for 6 months. Again, I heard this through a friend, so unsure how accurate it is, or if your employer needs to hold your job.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Starting in Jan 2008, I believe employers had to hold jobs for 2 years from the start of mat leave. My baby was born before that date though, so I am not 100% sure about the details.

I am fairly sure you are correct on the maximum amount. I have also heard that if you talk to EI, you can take normal EI instead of mat leave, which doubles the maximum amount, but EI only pays out for 6 months. Again, I heard this through a friend, so unsure how accurate it is, or if your employer needs to hold your job.

To qualify you need to have worked 600 hrs.

My wife is currently on Mat leave. She receives 55% of her income, but here's the kicker, no tax or ei or any other deductions so it actually comes out to about 80% of your salary. We never heard of a maximum, she is paid much more than that amount.

You get 15 weeks mat leave and 35 weeks of parental leave and the 2 weeks of unpaid mat leave is you so desire.

About leaving early, my wife did this with her work w/o any problems. They just gave her unpaid vacation (leave), she was left on payroll until our little guy was born. Pretty simple IMO.

I also took 4 weeks of parental leave (the 35 weeks is shared) and again, they paid me about 80% of what i was earning. (which is again, much more than 750/2 weeks):

(edit: i just took a look and the maximum amount is $447/week; coincidentally that's what both of us were getting)

Good luck and congrats!

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Rathji

Starting in Jan 2008, I believe employers had to hold jobs for 2 years from the start of mat leave. My baby was born before that date though, so I am not 100% sure about the details.

At my previous job we had about a dozen women leave on mat leave, and they all talked about it being 1 year. Do you recall where you heard 2 years?

Just seems a little excessive. Right now I know of a handful of people who went back to work from mat leave either already pregnant again, or got pregnant within a month or two of going back. That would mean for an employer that out of 3 years they would have to hold a job open for you for 2 of them. If it was the 2 years that you suggested, employers could potentially have to hold a job open 4 out of 5 years. I could see that being a burden; especially on a smaller company.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by ken0042

At my previous job we had about a dozen women leave on mat leave, and they all talked about it being 1 year. Do you recall where you heard 2 years?

My wife heard it from a friend, consulted her employer about it, and they said since it had come into effect after she started Mat leave, it wouldn't count for us.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by fotze

I never understood the 3 month thing. Is it if you have a miscarriage your family will think you suck? I guess in the case of grandparents, the drama could get really annoying if something happened. Maybe its a function of the overbearingness of certain friends and family.

It can be awkward. My wife had a miscarriage 2 years ago after telling a lot of people (right around the 3 month period). She had people for months asking her how the pregnancy was going (and getting the answer when she'd start to cry).

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by csnarpy

My wife is currently on Mat leave. She receives 55% of her income, but here's the kicker, no tax or ei or any other deductions so it actually comes out to about 80% of your salary. We never heard of a maximum, she is paid much more than that amount.

There is a maximum that you get, i cant remember the exact amount but I think that you get $435 a week or something. It doesnt matter if you make $200,000 or $60,000 you will get the same amount. And yes you do pay income tax on top of that.

[bigtmac19]

There is a EI available here in Ontario to care for a seriously/terminally ill relative, I believe it's around six weeks. I know someone I work with was going to use this. I'm not sure of all the requirements or details, but you may want to check into this. Maybe your wife could take this particular leave before she starts her maternity leave.

I thought this was interesting (seeing as I hit my 20 weeks on Thursday...)

When a pregnancy terminates within the first 19 weeks of pregnancy, it is considered an illness under EI. If that is the case, sickness benefits may be paid as long as the qualifying conditions for sickness benefits are met.

On the other hand, if the pregnancy terminates in the 20th week or later, the claim for benefits can be considered for maternity benefits if the qualifying conditions for maternity benefits are met.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by fotze

I never understood the 3 month thing. Is it if you have a miscarriage your family will think you suck? I guess in the case of grandparents, the drama could get really annoying if something happened. Maybe its a function of the overbearingness of certain friends and family.

Much like habernac said, it can help you avoid having to talk about your miscarriage many times over. Just last month I asked a friend how her pregnancy was going and she told me she lost the baby. You could tell it was something very painful to mention.

[Hack&Lube]

Why is it that your fellow Employee is allowed 15 weeks off work over the year?

I am coming from the aspect of a non-uterus possessing worker downtown and it really bugs me that people that are expecting mothers in my building are taking up to 15 weeks. The thing that annoys me more is they seem to think that this is acceptable and that each childbirth labour is only 14 hours in length.

[gildo]

Thanks to everyone, great info as always!