Frequently Asked Questions About Maternity Leave in California

As I was getting ready to return to work from maternity leave after having my first child, I thought about how difficult the process of figuring out the money parts of maternity leave had been for me, and I decided to write a simple article to help other women like me figure everything out.

The article was far more popular than I imagined, and over the past two years I have received several questions about the topic. Because the state does not make these things as simple as they should, I have decided to address these questions here, from one friendly California mom to another.

Question: My company has a benefit that pays me for two months right after the baby is born. Do I still get the pay from the state for disability and child bonding or is it either or?

Answer: You need to check with your company to be sure, but most employers require you to file for the state disability and paid family leave, and then your employer's disability insurance will pay the difference. Because SDI and PFL only cover about 55% of your income, your employer's disability insurance will make it so that you have no loss of income while you are on leave.

Question: Do you have to have sick time on the books at your job in order to get the paid family leave?

Answer: These funds do not come from your employer; they come from the state of California Employment Development Department, so you do not have to have sick time on the books.

Now, if your state is offering you supplemental disability insurance that will provide you full-time pay while you are off, they may require you to take any accrued sick time you have before getting their supplemental disability pay.

If you do have sick time available, you might want to see if your company will allow you to use it for the unpaid waiting period of maternity leave.

Question: Does the 4 weeks before birth take away time from afterbirth leave?

Answer: No, the 4 weeks before are disability for the pregnancy, and they do not take away time for your maternity leave, which is for you to recover from the pregnancy. Keep in mind that you also cannot add those 4 weeks to the after delivery time, so it does not benefit you to work right up to the moment you are born, except for the fact that you will get your full income rather than 55%.

Question: The 4 wks you are allowed to take off before your due date, are those full paid?

Answer: No, they are not full pay. One week is at no pay, and then the rest of the time, up until you have the baby is paid at 55%, just like the rest of the maternity leave.

Question: My doctor is taking me out now, and I am not due for three months. Will I only get paid for the first month?

Answer: If your doctor is choosing to take you out of work earlier than 4 weeks before for health reasons, then he is declaring you disabled early, and you will get your benefits until the baby comes. This is what happens typically for women who end up on bed rest. You cannot decide yourself to take off three months early, say just because you are tired, or you will not get the full pay though. However, be sure to tell your doctor if there is something about your job that is making it difficult for you to work. For example, if you are a waitress and cannot keep standing on your feet all day, or if you have a long commute and are finding that you cannot remain continent during the long drive each day, then your doctor could declare you disabled early.

Before trying to convince your doctor that your customer service job of talking on the phone for eight hours a day is causing you stress that you believe is unhealthy for the baby, do realize that taking early disability may cause you a loss of job protection if you stay out for the full 12 weeks after. Regardless of what your doctor says, the federal laws only provide you so many weeks of job protection. In today's economy especially, your employer could find out that it was easy to function without you and see letting you go as a good way of penny pinching.

Question: Is the paid disability and paid family leave only for employees in companies that have 50 or more employed? Does the 12 weeks after giving birth apply to smaller companies?

Answer: These funds do not come from your employer; they come from the state of California Employment Development Department, so it should not matter what size the company is. Check your pay stubs to see if they take money out of your check of SDI. If they do, then you qualify.

Question: Is the 55% before or after taxes?

Answer: The 55% is pre-tax, so that is somewhat helpful.

Question: I think it is horrible that we only get paid about 55%! How can I survive off of that?

Answer: While it is true that in today's economy most people use the majority of their paycheck every month just paying for bills and simple necessities, the 55% is actually not that bad if you take into account a few factors.

First of all, it is before tax, so it actually works out to be a little bit more than 55% of your take home. Second, you probably spend some money on gas commuting to work each day, which you will no longer be spending. Also, if you tend to join friends at work to eat lunch out a lot during the work week, you will probably find it much less tempting now that you are at home during the day, which can save a lot of money.

Having mentioned these factors, I would like to give some friendly advice to any one who is in a tight financial situation. If the thought of losing 45% of your income makes you nervous, then you need to really plan ahead, as early in your pregnancy as you can (or, even better, in an ideal world, you would start planning before you even get pregnant), to save some money to make up that difference. Look at your monthly budget and figure out every way that you can save money and start putting it in the bank now. Instead of splurging on a fancy new crib and lots of fancy new baby clothes, buy second hand things and then save the money.

Then, you will probably want to work as long as you possibly can into your pregnancy. Yes, you will lose that time, but it will save you money. Remember that there is an UNPAID waiting period of 7 days before you can get any disability. If things are tight, then you probably can't afford to have an entire unpaid week, and you will benefit from having your full income during that time, rather than the 55% you would get for disability.

Lastly, you may find that when the 6 weeks are up, you cannot afford to take an additional 6 weeks at 55%. For us, it was a very tough decision, but I went ahead and took them anyway. One thing to remember is that you get up to a year after the baby is born to take those 6 weeks, so you could always go back to work, save some money, and then take those 6 weeks when the baby is a little bit older, as long as it is within the first year. You may find it easier to bond with the baby during that time anyway, as the baby will be older and starting to do more fun things, like sit up or even crawl.

Question: Do we receive check from the State weekly or bi-weekly? I received my first check 2 weeks ago and haven't got the second one yet.

Answer: Ha, ha, ha. That is a very good question. Would you like the technically correct answer or the answer of personal experience? I imagine you want the truth, so I will tell you both.

Technically, you are supposed to get the checks weekly. However, the state gets behind. I guess there are more pregnant and disabled people in California than there are employees working for EDD. By the time I got my very first check, my son was three weeks old, so it was about 6 weeks after I had stopped working. It was a lump sum by then for all the weeks that it had taken them to get it processed, but it was nonetheless hard to wait that long. I had not budgeted for that. Then, you get a form with your last SDI check that lets you request PFL, and that takes a while to process that, so there is a further delay at that point.

In short, if you are reading this enough in advance, prepare to have some funds in reserve to give the state time to catch up.

Question: Is there another un-PAID 7 day period to receive the 6 weeks paid?

Answer: No, once you go on maternity leave, the SDI should flow seamlessly, no additional unpaid time. Some time around your due date, you will get a call to see if you delivered the baby, what the date was, and whether it was vaginal or C-section, and they will adjust that accordingly (8 weeks from delivery date for C-section, verses the traditional 6 for vaginal delivery... although in my opinion, it should be the other way around).

Question: The last paragraph of your article states that you were earning money other ways while on disability. I have the opportunity to do some work part time from home that will start in the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy disability. Is this allowed?

Answer: No, you cannot be employed in any way while you are on maternity leave.

I found ways to come up with money that did not involve being an employee. I did a couple of market research studies, which were like on a Tuesday night for a couple of hours. This was actually a nice way to get out of the house as a trial before leaving my baby for a full day. We also sold all of the things that we suddenly realized post-baby were frivolous things that we didn't really need. We sold video games that we never played, movies we probably wouldn't watch again, and books on Amazon. We had a garage sale. We recycled all of our cans. I wrote articles for Associated Content. These are all little things, but they did help to make ends meet when things were getting tight at the end.

Disclaimer: Although I did experience this myself, I do not claim to be an expert on any situation. The information provided here is only friendly advice. It is not endorsed by the State of California, and there may be exceptions depending on your employer and any union or contract you may be under. Be sure to do further research to see if there is anything unique about your situation.