Maternity Pay - what does your employers offer?

[Vallmo]

Hi ladies,

I am trying to benchmark my company's maternity policy when it comes to "topping up" statutory maternity pay and am wondering if you don't mind telling me who you work for and what enhanced maternity pay your employer currently offers. All answers will be very much appreciated!

Thanks a lot!

[alexdrake]

We get 12 months on full pay, car company - I know we're really lucky to be able to take the time and not worry financially.

We can either get paid for holiday we haven't taken or tag it on to either end of the leave.

Suppose I better go and get ready to go there! All the best Vallmo.

[pinkfizzle]

12 weeks full pay, then 12 weeks half pay. but have to return to work for I think 6 months, otherwise you have to pay back the 12 weeks half pay.

No we can't carry over our Hols.

I have been so busy at work that I have not been able to take all my hols, which people who I locally work with understand, so there is a risk from hr that i will lose the holidays but I think the management I work for will be supportive, it will just be HR who will try do me out of hols. So fingers crossed.

[Vallmo]

Thank you to everyone who posted here! It seems we should all go and work in the car manufacturing industry as I've seen several car companies offering full pay for 52 weeks - what a dream!

It really does seem to vary a lot between both individual companies and industries. From what I have found car manufacturing companies appear to be offering the most generous (and sensible!) enhanced maternity pay, civil service seems to be between 20-24 weeks, Universities around 18 weeks and private companies vary between zero and up to 36 weeks. I have found (what I believe to be reasonable reliable) information on 21 companies across different industries (both plcs and ltds) and the average maternity time paid at 100% is around 26 weeks. I must say though, that it has been easier to find information on companies that offer enhanced maternity pay as they tend to win various awards for being employers offering a good work/life balance so my amateur reasearch have only looked at companies who does already offer some kind of enhanced maternity leave.

Thanks again for giving an insight into what your company is offering. Mine does pay pension whilst on maternity leave and allow us to accrue holiday and take it at the end of the maternity leave.

[amyboo]

I'm a civil servant in the EU institutions in Brussels and I get 20 weeks full pay, 6 of which is supposed to be taken before the birth (although that isn't obligatory if your doctor signs a note saying you're fit to work later).

I also get 6 months of "parental leave" which can be taken any time in the first 12 years of the child's life, in 1 month segments. It's paid at a statutory rate which is about a third of my normal salary. In any case, most people here use it for school holidays, as kids get 8 weeks Summer holidays in Belgium.

I'll be taking my 20 weeks and then adding some holiday days to take me up to about 5 months after the birth.

[Southwestwhippet]

Statutory minimum for me too.

Riding Instructor at a Riding for the Disabled charity.

[NewbeeMummy]

Work for a med sized Private IT company (350 employees)

I get....

6 weeks at 90%
10 weeks at 50%
10 weeks at 25%
13 weeks of SMP
13 weeks of nothing

Thought I had a really good deal, but looking at some of the posts it's far from fantastic.

[FlightofFancy]

I get 6 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks at 50% then SMP up to 39 weeks. Get pension paid as normal while off, but can't carry over holiday.
I'm very lucky as the company I work for is a mixture of people from various companies we've taken over, and new employees and I was TUPE'd over from a company with 'enhanced' maternity pay - most of my colleagues only get basic statutory.

[sobloodystupid]

24 weeks at full pay, then nothing for 16 weeks, public sector Ireland

[Bibithree]

I got 26 weeks full pay, 13 weeks SMP and a further 13 weeks unpaid if I wanted it. Civil Service. That was over 2 years ago though, there was talk of ramping it up to 39 weeks at full pay at one point.

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

DC1 massive multinational insurance co. Stat min.

DC2 small social enterprise. Stat min.

Note: I have not read any of the other answers as I am always left

[LittleCheese]

asda give 13 weeks full pay 13 weeks half pay and 13 weeks smp. If you go back and stay for 6 months you get the 13 weeks half pay topped up to full pay in a lump sum

[LunarSea]

Statutory minimum - and they think that's overgenerous (UK operations of American corporation where entitlements are lower). With ds2 I was reminded that I only had to take 2 weeks off to comply with the law!

[1dilemma]

Interesting reading this with the exception of civil service private sector is so much better than public (need to remember this next time pensions get discussed)

OP there was a very long thread about this ages ago might be worth looking for

I can't remember mine but I do know it is a shade over the stat min. and has to be paid back if don't return to work

[Treats]

Don't want to get into a row 1dilemma but I was reading this thinking that the public sector was much better than the private....... Civil Service aside (clearly untypically generous), most public sector workers appear to be getting something over and above the statutory minimum. Everyone who's posted to say that they're only getting the statutory minimum (ref. LunarSea, LToS, Southwestwhippet, pregnantpeppa, Tillyscoutsmum) works for a private company. Only Lib76 has a public sector job that pays just SMP.

I think the truth is that it varies enormously, and I don't think that the split is between private/ public so much as between those organisations that make attracting women back to work a priority - and can afford to offer attractive incentives - and those that don't, or can't afford to. I know someone who used to work in HR for a major London hospital and their package was very generous because it was such a female-dominated workforce, the cost of recruiting replacements for all the women who went on mat leave each year far outweighed the costs of offering financial incentives to return to work.

Just for the record, I work for a small company in the IT sector and I'll be getting statutory minimum + £1500 return to work bonus. I used to work for a large bank that offered much better benefits but am happier where I am now, so don't mind having given them up.

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

Have to agree with treats, anecdotally my friends in public sector have all had more generous maternity packages than private sector.

I think it varies industry to industry rather than being a straightforward private/public divide.

Also many companies with foreign parents where benefits are less generous are likely to have less generous packages - lunarsea's example being a good one. Often these are large mulitnationals which you would assume from the outside would be very generous. Ditto industries which are historically male dominated are often total crappo.

[watercress]

I work in publishing and get a very good deal:
26 weeks full pay
13 weeks SMP
13 weeks unpaid
I accrue annual leave while off, but have to take it before coming back, so that's five week's full pay (though I am part time) after the unpaid portion. And I'm also eligible for up to six weeks parental leave on full pay (plus another seven unpaid).

My company doesn't pay very well on the salary front, but makes up for it with things like this! They are also very lovely in that they will work out how much it is over the whole year, then pay it pro rata, so I have money coming in all the time.

I know I'm very lucky.

[rimmer08]

am a teacher. we get 4 weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90 percent pay then 12 weeks at 50 percent i think. which is shit compared to some people

[CinnabarRed]

Big 4 Accountancy firm. We get 6 weeks at full pay, 20 weeks at 1/3rd pay, then SMP. Which is not great compared to some here, but we do get a return to work bonus of 6 weeks' pay (provided we return for at least 12 months).

[1dilemma]

Actually treats/LTOS I'm going to disagree (in a very lovely non argumentative way) pregpeppa gets 20 weeks full pay, lunar works for an American company (I assumed the q. was aimed at UK mat pay not other countries OP is I presume trying to peg her pay to comparable UK companies not Sweedish ones) and SWW works for a charity which interestingly I automatically equated with public sector type jobs, I think they would be on a very sticky wicket paying an enhanced rate.

Excluding civil service lots of public sector workers will get a slightly enhanced package it's those in the private sector (and it may be small numbers) who can get 100% pay 100% of the time, return to work bonuses that are generous and the right not to pay the whole lot back.

Although I'm sure what LTOS says is right it is an industry dependent thing.

Surely your HR in hospital example is more related to politicians,renumeration consultants we set the policy we set the rates type factors than anything else? how did their package compare to that of a nurse or porter for example?

[Treats]

I agree that I should probably not have counted SWW as being a private sector worker and that I was wrong about pregnantpeppa.

However, nobody on here has said that they will get 100% pay 100% of the time, and even if someone were to pop up later, I think it's clear that they would be in the minority. I still think it's inaccurate to say that "the private sector" pays better than "the public sector" - the difference is between those organsiations that pay well and those that don't and I don't think they're distinguished on private/ public lines. The civil servant example shows that it's POSSIBLE to get far more generous benefits in the public sector than in the private, but you'd be foolish to take that as evidence of what the wider picture looks like. likewise, one private company paying well doesn't mean that they all do.

FYI - I wasn't clear. The hospital maternity policy applied to all grades and job types across the hospital - certainly the nurses had very good provision becuase they were a key group that the hospital wanted to retain. I only made the point about my friend working in HR to show that she knew what the policy was and why they had it.

I think it's a shame that people feel there needs to be such a battle between public and private- I suspect your reference to pensions shows that you've been there before . I think it's a false distinction personally. On both sides you'll find people who are low-paid and with little job security whose interests need protecting against those who hold the purse strings and indulge themselves at others' expense.

As an example of the latter, btw, you say "bankers!" and I say "politicians!"

With much love.......

[lilysam]

I think it's amazing that however you work for the 'government' the pay is so different. Teachers, nurses, council get a few weeks on 90% or half pay, Civil service 6 months full pay or more!!! Nice to see they share the pot evenly...[hmmm]

Clearly would cost an arm an a leg financing predominantly female based sectors such as teaching an nursing, but does make you think. Civil service is the way to go....

[Bettymum]

I work in advertising...we get 14 weeks full pay and then 25 weeks SMP, providing we return to work.

[HolidaysQueen]

I work for a big pharmaceutical company. We get 6 months full pay, plus car allowances and pension payments then the remainder is statutory (so 13 weeks SMP and 13 weeks nothing)

We also accrue holiday (but again that is a statutory thing that everyone gets, not a perk of my company)

On the downside I do owe them 6 months back (although doesn't have to be on the same hours - I went back 3 days per week) otherwise I have to pay back the relevant proportion they gave me beyond SMP (so if I went back for 4 months, I'd owe them for 2 months).

So pretty good, although I am then tied in when I return - but even that has been a good thing in a way because I hated work for the first 3 months and would have quit, but I am now really settled and enjoying it at 5.5 months in so glad that I was 'forced' to come back for at least 6months.

My company is also very generous on the flexible / part time thing so pretty much everyone who comes back from mat leave and wants to work part time can do. So for me that is as much a maternity perk as the hard cash.

[LunarSea]

1dilemma - but I'm Britsh, working in the UK, under UK law - like the several hundred other people the company employs here so where the global head office is is irrelevant really in legal terms - it just affects their attitudes.