The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Eligible employees are entitled to:
- Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
- the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
- the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
Let’s break this down a little. These twelve workweeks are UNPAID, unless your company chooses otherwise. You can also pay for short term disability coverage with your insurance plan so you can have some income during those 12 weeks.
From my experience, I have had to pay $14 more per pay period to increase my short term disability pay. Did you know that having a baby leaves a woman disabled for up to 12 weeks? I had no idea that having a baby is a disability. I am not sure if there is research out there but I would assume that the only people in my company buying additional short term disability coverage are women. Do you think the dude in the cube next to you even has to think about it? I pay $14 more/check so that I can get paid 60% of my regular salary after having a baby.
I do not have any children, but my husband and I have begun to discuss starting a family. There is quite an increase in pregnant women in my office these days so I started asking questions and I was absolutely horrified by the answers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division nursing mothers must be provided with “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
One woman I spoke with said that she was nursing at her last company and they gave her a conference room to use. However they didn’t put any signs on the doors, or give her the ability to reserve the room. While pumping one day another coworker started pounding on the door because he needed a conference room ASAP. He pounded and screamed and repeatedly tried opening the door and then complained about it to the whole office. In return they told her she was “disrupting” the workplace and they told her to use the storage closet. This closet clearly didn’t lock, but they put a screen up that she could stand behind. The worst part is that instead of standing up for herself she just found another job. I wonder what happened to the next woman there that needed to nurse?
This same person had another baby at a different company and they told her to use the executive bathroom. Clearly another violation and she did stand up for herself yet again. Another coworker planned on “pumping in my car”. She didn’t know who to ask or where to go so she was preparing to set up shop in the parking lot.
While discussing this with other women I found out that 3-4 years ago and executive once instructed them to “avoid hiring women of child bearing age.” I have no words for this one, but it infuriated me.
What truly infuriates me are these women that are too afraid of rocking the boat or standing up for themselves and other women. Particularly because these women have been working in corporate America for 35+ years. They have lived through Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and Roe v Wade. For everyone that has forgotten the journey towards equal treatment and rights, please take some time and watch Makers Women Who Make America on PBS or AOL.
Unless men start having babies, women are going to have to keep fighting the good fight.
84 Vintage 