To ask what your maternity package was/is?

[JustStirItUna]

I work for a fairly large firm (250+ people) and it's very 'male' heavy with a lot of engineers. One of the directives for this year is for the company to employee more women in engineering roles.

This is great, but it bothers me that the maternity package is shite (6 weeks at 90% then straight onto SMP). We have a forum where we can ask questions anonymously, but as we're so short of women (especially ones of child bearing age) it might be obvious that this question has come from me or someone in my (female heavy) dept.

So can I ask what your package was/is? And whether I should raise this as a concern for a company actively trying to recruit young (graduate) female engineers?

I worked for a national charity (hundreds of employees) and the maternity package was 6 weeks at 90% and then SMP. Most of the company were female employees so I don't think that affected the attractiveness of working for them really.

I got full pay for 6 months then SMP for 3-I work in the public sector though, this is one of the reasons why...

I work for a company that has about 3000 staff and ours is 6 weeks 90% then SMP.

I work for a very large communications company and got 4 months full pay, 2 months half pay and 6 months SMP. They are a very family friendly business.

I work for a massive worldwide company - I go on maternity leave in 3 weeks and my package is 6 weeks at 100% then a further 33 weeks at SMP.

6 mths full then gradually reduced from then till 9mths then went to statutory. Large company couple thousand staff

6 weeks full, then up to 6months half pay, then smp.

i've worked doing hr for lots of companies and 6wks at 90% then smp is pretty average. A couple of places did 3 months at 90% but other than some very good public sector, nursing or some teaching roles i've never known anyone to be more generous than that.

When i got pregnant with ds1 i had been working there for 1 week less than the required time so i only got MA. which was really shit.

I am in Public Sector - Teacher so a popular female job. We get 4 weeks Full pay, 2 weeks 90%, 12 weeks 50% + SMP, 21 weeks SMP then 13 weeks of nothing.

Previous company which I now regret leaving (purely for mat leave benefit) in the private sector, was full pay for the year! Plus NCT antenatal course paid for. Company was an traditionally 'male' company, large motor company, but women were definitely not in the minority - possibly 60-40 male female.

Mine was stat minimum

Mine was 6weeks at 100% and then smp. Sme, sales.

Large national retailer. Statutory here too. I worked for a law firm previously and it was enhanced at 3 months full pay and 3 months half. Needed to have been there 2 years to qualify.

Mine is same as the OP. 175,000 employees

My current package is 90% for 6 weeks and 50% for 20 weeks, then SMP. However my old job was 6 weeks @ 90% then straight into SMP. Nothing to do with gender balance (firm had more than fair representation of women of child bearing age), but everything to do with them being tight fuckers. So I sympathise OP, but can't see much to be done.

Mine was cracking. Full pay for about 6 months.

Oh, and then they made me redundant while on mat leave.

That cost the buggers £157k

Not that I'm bitter or anything :)

Full pay for 18 weeks, and then onto SMP
Also a very male-dominated industry/company

15 weeks of full pay and then 15 weeks of half pay.

5 months full pay, plus 5 weeks hols and statutory hols and the remainder SMP. Large multinational company.
Did that, went back for a few months and then went off and did it again. Didn't have to pay anything back.
They were great and saw us through two years before I had to work again. Very lucky.

6 weeks full pay, followed by 6 weeks 90% pay them SMP.

Maternity Pay rate was calculated to an average pay rate (including overtime or bonus) in the 12 week before my 25th week of pregnancy.

I worked mine so I done at least 10 hours overtime every week for those 12 weeks. I also got a good bonus in that quarter. My weekly pay was about £200 - £220 higher for those first 12 weeks than my standard wage would have been.

I also got a bonus payment during my maternity leave as they paid me based on what I had achieved in the previous quarter before I went on maternity leave.

For all the faults of that workplace, I thought the maternity package was pretty good.

Oh yeah should have said it was a large global company (well known Bank)

It might be worth questioning so it could have come from a wider 'interest' base. Along the lines of ..... They're hoping to attract more women to engineering roles, great. Does this mean the company will review related family policies (materinity/ paternity/ flexible working) because 'in your experience' these can make a company more appealing. This is a query that could come from a man or woman with plans/ young family.

Large construction consultancy (engineers, surveyors, ecologists etc) and ours is 6 weeks 90%, 20 weeks 50%, 13 weeks SMP, 13 weeks nothing.

An investment company where although it was tiered and there was an initial bubble new baby payment when averaged out I received around 90% of pay for 6 months. Paid back if I didn't return and 50% paid back if I left before 6 months. I

With my first baby I was at a small investment company and received the statutory.

Do feedback. If they want to attract women they need to support them to stay/come back if they have a family. To be fair it's hard to ask what maternity benefits are in an interview so they may not attract female employees this way but they could retain them and cut back on recruitment fees?

Multinational consulting firm, 12 weeks at full pay then 6 months SMP then three months nothing. Return to work bonus of £1200 (to be paid back if leave within 2 years iirc).

18 weeks full pay, then onto SMP.

For the record, 6 weeks at 90% then SMP is the statutory minimum - your company are not giving you any extra by doing the 6 weeks at 90%, it is the legal minimum.