Solicitor maternity leave - maternity pay

[user1497962622]

Hi all,

I am a solicitor in a small regional firm. I have a toddler and my husband and I are thinking about having a second.

Our firm's maternity leave policy allows for statutory maternity pay only.

Is this the norm, or is this something to raise? There seems to be a sexist culture within the firm generally and I think it feeds into this pattern and acceptance of this type of behaviour.

Any thoughts on the level of maternity pay would be much appreciated.

It's the legal minimum so anything else is entirely at the discretion of the firm. It's not sexist - it's not like they are paying men a higher level of maternity pay.

I'm on SMP too- small company. My boss told me they get that money back from the government but anything above it they have to fork out themselves. That said, during pregnancy when I needed time off they were brilliant and really understanding

Of course it's sexist - it's a practise that's going to disproportionally affect women, and will affect their recruitment and retention of women:

I work for a Big global company and we only give statutory mat leave and pay. I've never worked anywhere where more is given. Don't forget they also need to pay someone to do your job whilst you are away.
People say enhanced pay means more employee loyalty but it's difficult to prove in a tangible way.

Thanks for the responses. I know that it is the legal minimum, but a little bit of investing in your employees usually goes a long way.

Another colleague is going on maternity leave in a few months and the plan is not to get someone in to do her job whilst she is off, the plan is currently to just spread her work load amongst us.

I was just interested to know if this was the norm. Choose your battles and all that...

I work for a very large company and they offer 26 weeks full pay and then the rest is statutory. I am the only one out of my peer group to get this.

The issue is that it's hard to demonstrate a return on investment for additional maternity pay beyond intangible "goodwill" etc. Believe me, I've tried!

Anecdotally I would say it's the norm in high street and smaller firms. City firms tend to pay more. I got 16 weeks at full pay then statutory (us firm with small City office). My old firm gave the best I have heard of - six months full pay, six months half pay.

I think rollonfriday or legal cheek did a survey a couple of years ago. You might be able to track that down online to see what other firms are doing.

I used to be a PA in City and West End law firms.

In 2002 I got Enhanced Mat pay - 6 weeks full pay and whatever the mat leave was at half pay (20 weeks I think). I was back at work before he was 5 months.

In 2008 I got Enhanced Mat pay in a different firm - 6 weeks at 90% and 20 weeks at half pay. I went back to work when she was 8 months.

I managed to use my pregnancy to work out how things were getting paid and half pay really helped. Both times, the law firms had only just brought in Enhanced Maternity pay about a month before I went on mat leave.

Each company is different. But more firms in the Centre of town are looking at benefits of all kinds.

Only SMP when I worked in similar. I don't know of any small firms that do more, only bigger ones. The advantage to that, of course, is that you've no obligation to go back/go back at the same hours.