Maternity pay has gone too far

[EasterIssland]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c781m9v4255o

apologies if there is another thread about it.
havent seen one.

im lucky enough to have a good salary that would allow me saving beforehand . Statutory maternity pay would mean around 20-30% of my salary. Is this too far? It’s one of the many reasons why we decided to only have one. I felt really vulnerable when I was on maternity leave and didn’t feel I kept having spare cash every month. I do understand what she means tho , the sooner we’re back the less we get from the government and more taxes we pay. Coming from a woman hurts even more not being recognised the sacrifices we do whilst we are on maternity leave

but then how does it help a business survive if this situation happens not long after they start ?

not advocating anything that breaks laws

That of course is what the de-regulators don't like. They are happy for firms who want to compete for good lawyers, managers, accountants and engineers to offer maternity leave. But they don't see why firms that can get a ready supply of minimum-wage workers from the DWP should have to keep on women who want to go on maternity leave.

If people were paid enough so that one wage was enough to keep a family, pay rent/mortgage, feed, clothe, pay bills etc & the other parent could stay at home to care for children maternity pay wouldn't be such an issue. But the world we live in means that unless both parents work, there is no chance of a good standard of living. When I bought my first home, my mortgage was less than 3 times my annual salary, that house is now worth more than 5 times the current salary for the job I did. Wages haven't kept up with rising inflation & house prices, then if you factor in childcare as well women are returning to work & after childcare have very little salary left. Kemi Badenoch has stabbed herself in the foot & effectively ruled herself out of the leadership race.

You are.

I used to work in nurseries and many women were EBF and mat leave was 12 weeks then. They used to feed on drop off, leave expressed for us to give and then feed on pick up. They used to express during the day at work. It was the norm then as mat leave was much less flexible and most went back at 9 or 10 weeks.

6 months in I wouldn’t have coped with work. I had a baby that hated sleep unless being held and we didn’t get more than a couple of hours sleep until she was a year old.

Another poster has already commented on Denmark, but this is not correct for Sweden either. In Sweden it's 480 days (so almost 70 weeks), although for the last 90 days you only get around £15 day. The earlier 370 days are paid at a rate that is proportional to income.

As outlined last night, six months leave isn't long enough to get the baby sufficiently weaned onto solids that they can be left for a full working day five days a week.

Ha. Obviously, as a mother, I’m aware that you start weaning at 6 months. However, milk should be the primary source of nutrition for a year. How do you manage that if you’re not at home with your baby? We should be doing everything we can as a society to support mothers to give their babies the best start in life. It’s hard enough as it is.

Anyone I know who went back before 12 months and think 12 months is excessive typically went back on very reduced hours and the baby went to family a lot.

I had to go back full time and the babies went full time childcare which I absolutely did not want them to do before 1y.

I think something like 80% pay for 6 months and SMP for another six is a more family supporting proposal.
Paternity needs to be 3 months at 80% across the board. Until men take more than a week off mothers will not be equal in the workplace.

Anyone who thinks, the now increased rate of £170 a week for 9 months is excessive is a fucking loon imo.

My mum did that with me. When I got pregnant she told me how hard it was and how ill it had made her. My dad worked away and she had no family support.

Why should we expect people to just about cope, sacrificing their mental and physical health, when we could support them to thrive?

Do you really think workers have more rights than the employer?
If a company only offers statutory pay then they claim it back from the government, so they aren’t out from the mother receiving it. So how is this a barrier for a small business to succeed?

A woman also needs to give notice of taking maternity leave no later than 15 weeks before the due date, firstly that isn’t particularly small and it’s not that common to leave it so late in the pregnancy anyway.
Whereas if the company wanted to terminate the workers employment they likely only need to give 4 weeks.
What balance of power is off?

A business that employs people for their labour has to factor in all sorts of regulatory statutory entitlements into their workplace planning, sick leave, dependents leave, annual leave. Maternity leave is no different. I never see small businesses complaining about the 5.6 weeks of annual leave they need to pay in exchange for no work.

Maybe your dad should've stepped up then and helped. It shouldn't have been all of your mum but that is how some dad's are

Did you not see where I said that he worked away? My dad was incredible. It doesn’t change the fact that he was a pilot. Pilots work away.

Also, with the best will in the world, men can’t breastfed.

I am all for good quality maternity leave policies and think Kemi Badendoch is awful BUT I did go back at 7 months as I had a relatively new job, still breastfeeding. I pumped during the day. Same baby is still enthusiastically nursing as a toddler despite full time nursery. It’s not either/or.

I agree. I think KB's proposals are stupid, but we are not doing mothers a service by suggesting or implying that breastfeeding means you are chained to your baby for a year. Cases of babies who could have nothing but milk from the breast for a year due to disability are very much the exception, not the norm. I started part-time at 5mo and increased to "almost full time" by about 9-10mo. Not for everyone, very much my choice, but perfectly compatible with breastfeeding. I pump-weaned at about 9mo - by that point, my breasts did not need emptying every few hours, and my baby was eating quite a lot of food.

I returned to work after 6 months leave with first 2 babies and after just 12 weeks with third (due to poor mat pay) and they all breastfed beyond 2 years and none had formula. DH took parental leave (largely unpaid). It is possible (I had an office job which made pumping breaks more accessible). 2nd baby actually wouldn’t take a bottle so I pumped and donated that milk to milk bank. He would just breastfeed in the evening/night instead!

You may disagree but you're wrong. We have an aging population and we need more young people. If there are not enough school places or doctors then we need to build / train more. You don't solve the problem of an aging population by discouraging people from having children.

Not every breastfed baby takes a bottle though, bottle refusal is very common.

MN is very unrepresentative on breastfeeding. Fewer than half babies are breastfed at all by six months.

What nonsense. We had DS in the UK and I went back to work when he was 8 months old. I had to save before having him.
This time, we live in Germany. I've just had DD and I'm entitled to 2000€/month (maternity pay + child benefit) for my year of maternity leave. That's still only about half of my net income but it's much better than what I had in the UK. Still, other mums look at me in horror when I say I'm going back full time after a year (we've got a nursery on site). I could stay home for 3 years but they wouldn't be paid and most people go back part time.
DH has also just fucked off so I'm now a single parent and could ask for spousal support from him since I don't actually have any obligation to be back in work until DD is 3.
It's much easier to have children here and still you have parents complaining that it's not enough.

Exactly, mine was at sea for months at a time.

Sometimes I think posters on here forget not every job is a Monday-Friday hybrid office/WFH job that allows flexible working and granny bringing the baby for a feed at lunchtime. And of course that not everyone has granny to look after the baby either.

Statutory policies need to consider all women.

But again, that doesn't actually matter. Breastfeeding is the biological norm (sorry I usually hate that phrase in relation to breastfeeding) so women should be able to do so if they wish. Their need to return to work shouldn't factor into their plans.

Badenoch wasn't just talking about mat pay, she was talking about all business regulation.

So sickness, H&S, flexible working, max working week, holiday pay....

She would like to see it all go, whilst keeping her wealth and privilege.