To negotiate for enhanced maternity pay or not? Dilemma.

[sellotape12]

Hmm would love any views on this. I'm interviewing after a shocking redundancy in Jan, right when we were thinking about TTC baby no.2.
I'm now into final stage interviews. Both companies have sent their policy which is 18 months service before you can access Enhanced Maternity Pay (EMP). Otherwise - statutory.
Is it worth trying to negotiate lowering the time at which I can access their EMP, or is it way too much of a red flag? I am already 40 so can't wait much longer - it's annoying timing I know.

If I don't do it - I'm leaving thousands on the table if I do get pregnant within the year.
If I do raise it in negotiations - it's a massive sign that I'm definitely thinking of trying to get pregnant ASAP.

Any thoughts or experience?

I've been in a similar position, OP. I found out I was pregnant with DS in 2018 after applying for a job but before I interviewed. I said nothing until I had the job offer, then said I would only be able to accept if they could qualify me for full maternity rights. Incredibly, the institution was due to bring in full maternity entitlement, including EMP, as a Day 1 Right, three weeks before my due date, and I was able to take up the offer. I was 13 weeks pregnant when I started there.

However, in your situation, I wouldn't say anything until I had a serious job offer, ideally in writing. It 100% shouldn't be, but chances are it would bias an interview panel against you if it was brought up before that point.

Very best of luck!

Oh that’s a tricky one . . . if it weren’t for your age, I’d suggest leaving TTC for a year so that you settle in to the new job, but I totally get why you don’t want to wait.

I’m not sure I’d negotiate EMP - perhaps others will say different, but I’ve never seen exceptions to company policy like that. Is there something else you could negotiate instead - aim higher on salary, a signing bonus, guaranteed performance bonus maybe . . . ?

If you negotiate salary etc as part of the recruitment process then include it along with Flexi time etc as part of a package. If they see through it then at least you tried. Better then not mentioning it.

I don't have experience, but was just going to write same as PP and leave it until you have an offer in writing.

If they retract their offer AFTER you attempt to negotiate, I'd say that was discriminatory. https://www.acas.org.uk/if-your-job-offer-is-withdrawn

Thanks all! Yes so tough. And believe me, I wish my husband could do a pregnancy instead of me but these are the cards we’re dealt. @RedPandaFluff yes me too, I would love to kick it down the road a year but my age and the fact that DS is already 3.5 right now makes me think it’ll be too risky and too big of an age gap.
Both companies are due to come back to me tomorrow on any job rejection/ offer. One is a big FTSE100 company, the other is a boutique consultancy of 40 people where the founders still work. So completely different! If it’s good news, do you think I should verbally sort of say yes and then try to renegotiate over bullet points if a written offer comes through? Gosh I don’t know what to do.

Hmm tricky. I would argue that giving one person enhanced pay earlier than someone else could be deemed as discriminatory towards the women who were pregnant and ineligible so it’s unlikely that the company would budge on this as it could open up a can of worms

I don’t see how they could make an exception to the policy for one person.

It depends, how much do you need a job? And are either of these jobs particularly ones you would really enjoy?
And could you financially go ahead with the pregnancy with just SMP?

When you say 'leaving thousands of pounds on the table' you have to realise that's not money you have. It might be money it's impossible for you to access because their policy is their policy- so are you focussing on it too much?

For me, if you can afford SMP, I'd forget about enhanced, hope to secure the job you want, and be happy to have something to go into after maternity leave.
It could take a while to conceive and you might fall into enhanced anyway. Or it might not happen for you and you need to be able to justify your choices in light of that later.

Would it be better to negotiate a higher salary

Yes, although both companies have been very transparent about the highest ceiling offer.

i think that’s the way to think about it though. If I get either job it’s slightly higher than what I was on when I got laid off but it doesn’t quite cover the gap of what 4 months full paid leave would be. I think most people are right – don’t mention it.

How did you get on, @sellotape12- were you able to negotiate an offset? Hope it’s all working out for you!

Thanks for checking, they’re still dragging out the process so not there yet. But I’ve had so many people quietly say don’t bother. Don’t do it. It will just send a massive alarm bell….