To think this maternity pay is less usual?

[coffeeoffee]

6 months full pay. It’s amazing, but surely not common? This would be so great for so many people but I was watching a Tiktok about someone returning after mat leave and loads of the comments were people saying they had this.

YABU - I had six months or more of full pay
YANBU - I had SMP / combo of SMP and half pay

I had 6 months full pay, 3 months SMP, and the remainder unpaid (although I worked out the timings so I was 'back' but using up accrued annual leave for part of that last bit). I know that's not a 'usual' amount of maternity leave in many fields but it does exist and it's worth factoring in when looking for jobs if you're planning a baby.

I work in a professional-ish role in a university, which offers these terms to all staff (academic, non-academic, catering, retail, cleaning, everyone.)

12 weeks at 90% pay then SMP.

I get bare minimum - 90% for six weeks then onto SMP. Work for a fairly big multinational logistics company.

Back 18 years ago when DC were born, I got 6 months full pay, 3 months SMP and 3 months unpaid BUT incredibly if I stayed 2 years after the birth (so 1 year after returning to work) I got a bonus of the "unpaid" money to the equivalent of the 12months at full pay. As you can guess they had phenomenal retention!

My company (very large PLC) recently changed to 6 months full pay - (10 days before my due date so I was very lucky!)

I think it's more common in some industries than others but more will have to offer it to keep up.

I work for a small company and got 6 months full pay in 2022. We've also recently had a male colleague take 6 months parental leave on full pay. It's great!

self employed. so maternity allowance only for the whole thing - £170 per week. DH entitled to nothing but 2 weeks off but i think at full pay (he's an employee). during pregnancy i had to take unpaid time off because if i don't work i don't get paid. the number of pointless or last minute cancelled appointments was incredibly annoying. the response was that I'm entitled to time off. that really only applies if you are an employee. I'm taking off a year because i can afford to but it's a huge financial hit. i am just happy not to be paying a tonne in tax as a result of not working.

I had 6 weeks full pay 12 years ago. I remember my civil service friend going back after 6 months because she ‘only got’ 6 months full pay - she assumed private sector was more. How I laughed.

Where I work now is 12 weeks full pay.

I'm se so I got ma which was think £158 a week at the time I was preg /had dd

edited to say preg not sleep

University sector more than a decade ago. 8 weeks full pay. 18 weeks half pay. 13 weeks smp then unpaid.

Wow!! I work for a local authority. It was just a touch over statutory

Similar to @crabette I got SMP only. I’m in a professional role but in the charity sector.

I’m on 12 weeks full, 12 weeks half, 15 stat. It’s let me take the full year, after which I’m tagging my annual leave on the end so managing 14 months off. Shame I’ve got to look after a baby during that time but you can’t have everything.

I was a retail buyer for a department store and only got SMP

12 months full pay in automotive sector

I had SMP. The variation out there is mad. I would love people to compile a list of employers who offer generous company mat pay as it's a massive benefit and a big draw for future employees.
My mat leave would have looked so much different had I had enhanced mat pay. I now view it as my company clearly do not respect or value mothers.

I got 6m full 13w stat, 13w unpaid.

Maternity pay in the uk is poor. The statutory rate wouldn't even cover the mums half of the bills. Its why so many men don't take the leave they could, the family can barely survive with one person off. A second (often higher earner) taking a few weeks at £172 a week cripples you.

I work in banking and received 6 months full pay, then statutory for 3 months then 0 pay for the last 3 months.

Still received full bonus pays on maternity leave and accumulated all holiday allowance which could also be tagged on to mat leave.

For context.... £172 a week is only £4.30 an hour so even if you're a minimum wage earner its a massive drop if finances.

I've worked in Payroll for 20 years. i have worked for 8 companies in that time, only one of them has paid enhanced as standard, the rest were SMP only.

My current work place pays enhanced after 3 years service, but its only 6 weeks full pay and 6 weeks half pay then SMP.

I get 26 weeks full-pay, then a couple of weeks of SMP only, and then I can have a further 3 months unpaid.

It's the first job that I've had that has decent pay, though, and that's mostly because there's almost no women working here and they want to change that.

I had 9mths full pay...very lucky!

I don't think it's at all usual. I had mat allowance both times with mine because of the way my fixed term contracts/freelance work fell. But had I gotten SMP at the time, it would have been 6 weeks of pay and then the usual SMP amount, which really wouldn't have been much difference.

I've just looked up my current employer's mat policy and it's 18 weeks of full pay followed by SMP, so definitely not 6 months. I would have been thrilled with 6 months!

I work in higher ed.

18 weeks full pay in my HEI which I think is standard for the sector.

Central Civil Servant. 6 months full pay, 3 months stat pay, 3 months unpaid. Last time i took 9 months off + accrued AL to take me to about 10.5months total.

DH is in a midsized private company and gets stat pat leave / pay. Last time our daughter hadnt even been discharged from NICU and his pat leave had already ended. Luckily his company allowed some special leave so he could be at home with her for a while.