to be completely hacked off about British maternity leave?

[lilyelodie]

I am the main earner in the family and am currently pregnant with dc3. The company i work for offers only statutory maternity leave, so we are going to really struggle financially to enable me to have 6 months off (I flatly refuse to have any less than that, as i only had 12 weeks with DS1 and really felt i missed out as a result) - the staff at the nursery my kids are at (state funded as well as private contributions) get 9 months on full pay, and various other people i know in the public sector get at least 6 months on full pay. Does that not mean that the money i pay in taxes contributes to paying other people (much better) maternity leave but not my own?! And that we are then taxed on maternity pay makes the whole thing seem like an utter farce. I am not disrespecting the work that other people do at all, and i do recognise that often (but by no means always) people in the public sector get lower slaries, but surely this dispartiy in what people are offered as maternity leave is just plain wrong and the government should actually address it properly?
...don't even get me started on other countries who actually respect people's right to have kids and support them financially to have proper time off with them!

I work in the NHS and as far as I know the maternity pay is fairly standard - I got 8 weeks full pay, the following 18 weeks half pay (plus SMP) and then for the following 3 months (up to 9 months in total) SMP only.

I personally don't know anyone who got more than that, in fact most of my friends got far less. afaik the legal minimum is something like: 6 weeks at 90% of your pay, all of the following weeks SMP only up to the 9 months.

My cousin lives in the USA and their "maternity leave" is measured in weeks rather than months. I guess it varies from state to state but she was one of the lucky ones. She is a teacher and managed to combine her mat leave (which was about 2 weeks officially iirc) with the summer holidays. Also there are often big issues (to do with health insure amongst other things) if a parent wishes to return to work part time rather than full time.

p.s. meant to clarify when I said "the maternity pay is fairly standard" - I mean within the NHS rather than standard elsewhere.

I own a business where we work to ratios (children's daycare nursery) and would go out of business if we paid anything other than SMP.

Every staff on mat leave has to be replaced so we would end up paying out two salaries. Not possible.

yes, sadly statutory legal minimum is 6 weeks at 90% and then SMP for 9 months.

does that seriously mean that people in the US get only 2 weeks? that is frightening. guess i was thinking more about europe.

by no means all public sector workers get full pay for mat leave. IIRC some civil servants in central government get 6 months on full pay, as do some grades of doctor.

us local government minions get a little more than statutory pay (6 weeks 90%, 8 weeks half pay, then SMP), but not much.

I am in the same situation, I work in the public sector and my employer only pays the statutory ie bare minimum maternity pay, and I have worked there for donkey's years!

Would love to know which public sector employer pays 6 months full pay!

Bubble99, I do recognise that particularly smaller businesses struggle with the finances - was actually wishing that the government would wake up and do something about it that would enable businesses to carry on and people to get a better deal at a time they need it most.

lilyelodie I am not sure exactly how much they get in the US (as standard, if indeed it is standardised) but I was at how little my cousin got even in addition to her summer holidays. She had her dd a few weeks after I had my dd1 and it was a major difference.

The media often talk about how much better it is in the rest of Europe. Not just for mat leave but also things like the length of our working week etc. I have no idea if we really are so much worse off.

I'm a public sector worker and I got 6 wks at 90%, 6 weeks at 50%, and the rest at the statutory rate.

What really pisses me off is that I have a member of staff who goes of 'sick' for six months of the year on full pay...and i have to manage on this pittance!!!!!!

Message withdrawn

Another public sector worker who didn't get full pay for six months.

Can't remember details - my youngest is almost 10, and I am aware that conditions have improved, but not to that extent!

I'm a public sector worker and I got 6 wks at 90%, 6 weeks at 50%, and the rest at the statutory rate.

What really pisses me off is that I have a member of staff who goes off 'sick' for six months of the year on full pay...and i have to manage on this pittance!!!!!!

I work for Royal Mail and got 18 wks full pay and the rest at SMP.

Wish I lived in Sweden, they get 18 mnths full pay by law.

I got full pay for six months in the private sector. So much better off than most public sector workers. Am very grateful. Although I gather the chairman was sounding off about it (luckily we had a feminist director).

My dd is only 7 and SMP has increased quite significantly since she was born.

Public sector workers are generally not very well paid but it may be made up for in other terms - ie one off payments

i got 16 weeks at full pay and then it would drop to 50% when i worked at a university.

i was the chief wage earner so i went back to work when DD2 was 16 weeks, but thankfully DH stayed home during the day with the kids and worked evenings and weekends.

I work with x-civil-servants who are still on the same T&C

They get 6 weeks at 90%, 6 months at 50% . They also get a months wages as a bonus for coming back to work

My husband works for in the car manufacturing industry (office) and female employees get a full year on full pay.

However, I think that this means most of them go back full time as there are often conditions attached if you are offered more than the legal minimum. So that benefits the company overall.

The workplace nursery has virtually no children under 11 months of age.

In order to claim my "extra money" - i.e. the half pay for 18 weeks in addition to SMP, I either had to agree to return for a minimum of 3 months, or pay it all back if I didn't.

There are often conditions attached to these apparently good pay deals.

Message withdrawn

Parental leave rights in different countries around the world

So in the US (where I am) there's NO paid maternity leave as standard, but you can take 6 weeks unpaid (how generous). I happen to work for a British company over here so was lucky to get 3 months full pay (whereas in the UK I would have got 9 months full pay).

Interesting to see the differences around the world though.

I'm going to get 14 weeks at 90% and then SMP in the private sector but the thing that really hacks me off is having to pay tax on the SMP. I'm the main earner but I really want to have some time with the baby when it arrives as it will be our first so hope to take 6 months in total. Approx. £60 a week will not even cover the groceries!

i work for a charity that is funded through dept health funds. i really had to battle to get mat pay that meant i could be off myjob for any decent length of time. i ended up not taking any annual leave for nearly a year to have that time, i also worked very long hours whilest pg to build up overtime hours to have as well. it is most certainly not the case that all public sector get a cushy mat. package.

Incidentally in some of the US (or it certainly used to be the case) 2 weeks' annual leave is considered to be normal/generous. The working day is often 8am-5pm.

Interesting to read the post from ManhattanMama.

it could be worse you oculd be an adopter - no 90% for first 6 weeks - only statutory minimum (£108?) per week flat for 9 months.

yet another reason why i will never live in the US again.