Jen- Moped your Maternity leave - question

My2Beauties wrote: OK....I am in awe of your maternity leave laws in Canada, I am so super jealous that you get an entire year off with your new baby girl! I'm wondering, and please let me know if I'm prying or asking too much, and you may have answered this in your other post that you had made about your last day of work when I was flabbergasted then. Do they pay you for the entire year off? Is it your company policy if they do or a law? I'm just wondering. I always thought that 6 weeks off was WAY too little, I always thought companies should have to pay you for 12-15 weeks mandatory then you could choose to take other time unpaid if you wish. I know of one company who pays 13 weeks of maternity leave here in Louisville, a friend of mine worked there and then you can take your other 12 weeks of FMLA, but every other company, if they even pay, only give you 6 weeks for vaginal and 8 weeks for c-section and then you get the rest of your 12 weeks FMLA so if you take 6 paid then you are allowed by law to take 6 more but in most cases it's unpaid. I'm just curious, I think it's awesome.

bawoodsmall replied: I thought she said that she can collect unemployment for the rest of the time.

moped replied: Ask away......I just have a second so i may come back later to explain, but I am off now and could be off til Dec 1 2008 - I am paid for 15 weeks full then I am on unemployment which is 55-60% of my salary and there is a max that you can make which is BRUTAL - i think it is only $750 every 2 weeks - so needless to say I honestly doubt I can swing a year with that big of a cut ya know.....but they do have to legally hold my job for 1 year. I have to give 30 days notice to go back to work or not go back to work.....does that help any? I have benefits for 15 weeks and then wont' have the extended benefits

Any other canadians give any info?

Boo&BugsMom replied:
WOW! I am super jealous! Why do I continue to live here again?

bawoodsmall replied: too cold up there for me. The max you can make every 2 is brutal though.

lisar replied:
I know right. Why are still living here??? Oh yea thats right "ITS way to cold where Jen is for me"

Boo&BugsMom replied:
You big baby! It's pretty close to what I'm use to (as I look at the close to 6 inches of snow on the ground already), so I still don't know why I choose to stay here. Well, I do...I'm such a homebody and this is where all my family lives. Other than that, nothing is really keeping me here.

CantWait replied: When I left my job for MAT leave I was paid for an entire year from Revenue Canada. Mind you it wasn't my full pay, only about a third I think, but for my family that paid for having a new baby in the house and then some. My money has always been the fun money that allowed us to rent movies by the dozen, eat take out etc...so the pay cut wasn't that bad for us.
You do have to be at a job for a paticular amount of time before you can collect MAT benefits, but it is law that they hold the position for you. Not all companies have to pay out benefits, but Revenue Canada /EI do if you've been with you employer for a certain amount of hours.

moped replied:
I think 400 hours or something - 600 hours, can't remember

lisar replied:
I live in Florida. Its dec 5th and my boss is wearing shorts. Heck we can go swimming on christmas day in the pool if we want. Jan and Feb are our coldest months. And we might get to 30 degrees. And trust me thats freezing here. Its like 50 outside right now and thats cold to me. I like the 70's and 80's temps.

tammyhopkins replied: Yes Jen the max is 750.00 take home every 2 weeks. And that is for 52 weeks you get that if you choose to be on leave for that long.

Which i will for sure i live in a small town in manitoba so it does not cost as much to live here. I love our maternity/paternity leave tiem we have. We can also split the paternity leave with the father of the child. So you can take six and he can, you can overlap it or take it seperate.

My2Beauties replied: If I didn't hate cold weather, I'd be there. I am sooooo super jealous. That is absolutely wonderful! Heck, I'd die just to have the 15 weeks paid. When I was on leave at my last job here, it was only 6 weeks and I only got 66% of my pay and the first 5 days I had to use my own vacation The job before that (when I had Hanna) I did get 6 weeks paid at 100%.