Congratulations on the birth of your child, now get back to work! That’s right, recent data shows that employers have cut back on paid maternity leave by 35% this year, down from 53% in 2020! What the heck is going on?
Here’s Five Fast Facts on Maternity Leave Cuts:
- 👶Out of Office - As with everything else, the pandemic caused some changes, leading most companies to expand parental benefits, including more paid time off to help take care of their kids.
- 🍼Rubberband - Employers are reducing the amount of paid leave they offer, in some cases back to the legally-required minimum, which is anything from none to eight or 12 weeks.
- 👼The Maximum Minimum - Federal law allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave. There are 11 states with laws that require most employers to offer paid leave to new parents. 39 don’t.
- 👨Dads, Too - Paid paternity leave programs are getting chopped too. Just 27% of employers now offer it, and that’s down from 44% in 2020.
- 🤰PTO - It should be noted that 99% of the employers surveyed offer paid vacation, 96% offer paid sick leave and 67% offer a PTO bank to cover both. So if you aren’t getting paid maternity leave (and you want it), you’re expected to take at least some of it out of there.
🔥Bottom line: Some of us were fooled into thinking the pandemic had fully changed the way companies treat their employees. Looks like they were just waiting for things to die down before getting back into old habits. If this kind of cost-saving move is any indication, you can’t count on any of those pandemic-era policies to stay in place.
Does your company offer paid maternity leave?
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