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?

Last job was 26 weeks at full pay + 3 months statuatory.

This job has 18 weeks full pay + remainder of 12 months at statuatory. Plus I keep my car, pension, health care etc while I'm on leave

Six months on 90% pay then three months statutory and then three months on nothing. Male dominated private company.

Civil Servant at the time

9 months full pay and then 3 months half pay, and then took 5 weeks accrued holiday at full pay again. It was bloody marvellous.

Current job would be straight to SMP I think

Public sector organisation -6 weeks 90%, Then I think 18 or 20 weeks half pay plus smt, Then 3 months smp. Then 3 months no pay if you want a year off.

NHS - 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay plus SMP (worked out to around 90% of full), 13 weeks SMP only, 13 weeks unpaid.

8 years ago so may have changed.

Where I am now is 6 weeks full pay and the remainder of the year unlaid, glad I had my children before I moved!

Unpaid. Not unlaid, although in the first year that was probaby true too!

Meant to say -have your company said they want ideas to attract more females? -if so definitely mention the idea of a better maternity package!

I got 6 months full pay, then SMP for 3 months, remainder unpaid.

FWIW Jag Land Rover (engineering firm) pay 100% for the full year. Not sure how it works for men taking the second half of female partners maternity leave. You should raise it anonymously.

Multinational company - 9 months full pay. There is a slight catch - if you drop your hours within 6 months of returning from maternity leave, then you maternity pay is re-calculated on a pro rata basis to your new lower salary and you have to pay back the difference.

The legal minimum for my first 2 DC, Maternity Allowance for DC3, nowt this time as SAHM.

Charity sector before I gave up work.

Public sector, several thousand employees. 16 weeks full pay.

Although in practice they responded to my notification of pregnancy with a redundancy notice, and It took 5 months of wrangling, union involvement and tribunal threats to get them to agree to actually pay...

Work for one of UK's biggest publishing companies, 6 weeks at 90% then onto SMP for the remaining. Oh it's hard, so hard

I got nothing.

Freelancer working for a British charity in Italy (2.5 years, full time). 2000.

Which was pretty much what I expected.

Just didn't expect to have to go on bed rest at six months. That fucked up the calculations a bit.

National bank 10 years ago, 4m full then 2half and accrued bonus in that time which I got after not going back.

National charity 3 years ago 6m full 3 statutory then 3 nothing.

Small charity now, bare minimum.

250+ staff isn't a large company, not really. I'd consider that a "small/medium enterprise". Depending on exactly what the company does, it might not have the profit margins to pay twice over for the same job, assuming they get cover for your role.

I work for a manufacturing co with 300 staff, and get smp. I wouldn't expect a company of that size to pay enhanced mat pay, I would expect it of a large multinational.

Also, I work where I do because it is close to home, free parking etc etc - the day to day stuff. I'm not sure that many people would give loads of weight to mat pay. I appreciate it might give you the edge over competitors though.

4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90%, 12 weeks 50%, 21 weeks SMP. We have saved the equivalent of the difference between this and my full salary for a year so I can take the year off if I decide to and we would have a cushion. TBH I spend less now than I did when I was at work. Not sure why.

Oops that should have said 12 weeks at 50% salary + SMP

I worked for a large company, motor industry. I got 9 months on full pay, soon after I went back to work it increased to a year at full pay.

It was 12 years ago so things might have changed!

Manufacturing company 700+ employees, maternity package is 100% pay for 6 weeks then SMP.

Zero - for the first 3 children I had not been at the firm for 2 years (in those days there was a qualifying period). Weith 4 and 5 I worked for myself so got zilch.

As a result I took 2 weeks off in all, have had a lovely family life and 30 year career and in a sense that is all because of the absence of maternity pay and leave which entrenches women in domestic roles and low pay. The new rights for men (where families can afford women and men taking a lot of time off) may help a bit with the gender discrimination.

In my last job, if I'd had a baby while there, I would have got 2 weeks on full pay (because I'd built up enough time off over 5 years), 6 weeks on 70% pay, then 3 months on zero pay.

Not in the UK obviously...

I work for a high street bank - we get 6 months at 100% pay then onto SMP. It recently changed as it used to only be three months.

Also, if both parents work for the company, they can swap who takes the leave.

In both on my pregnancies they were also very accommodating throughout and allowed flexi time when I came back as well.

I think they're a pretty good company to work for tbh. They are family friendly (I think they're even on the MN list!)