This post is a discussion of the maternity leave laws that protect your job in California.
Maternity leave in California is piecemeal together from several laws at the federal and state level. Until I applied for maternity leave several months ago, I did not know the maternity leave laws covering job protection and getting paid are separate. The maternity leave laws in this post covers job protection when you are out for several months. Getting paid while you are on maternity leave are separate from job protection and are cover by SDI, PFL, your personal vacation, and any additional leave your company might give you.
While you might not be as concern about job protection as getting paid while on maternity leave, it is still a good idea to know your job protection rights while pregnant and during maternity leave. I wrote about getting paid maternity leave in a previous article. The maternity leave laws to protect your job discussed here take effect at the same time as your paid maternity leave benefits.
Family Medical Leave Act aka FMLA (12 weeks)
FMLA is a federal law that provides job protection up to 12 weeks for a medical condition such as pregnancy or caring for a sick family member. To invoke FMLA, you will need to fill out a form or get a doctor’s note stating that you are pregnant. You do not need to take the entire 12 weeks at once. Once you invoke FMLA, you can take incremental time off (several hours or several days) until it add up to 12 weeks for any one year period.
Typically, your job is protected under PDL (see below) and FMLA the 4 weeks prior to your due date. If you need to be on bed rest or take additional time off (and you do not have sick leave) before the 8th month of your pregnancy, then your job is protected under FMLA. When you use this maternity leave law without using any personal time off before the 8th month for an extended period of time (ie. bed rest), you will probably be require to take a leave of absence from your job.
According to the medical community, you “recovered” from pregnancy after 6 weeks for a vagina birth and 8 weeks for a C-section. FMLA protects your job while you are recovering and the state disability insurance (SDI) pays for a portion of your wages. Please note that if you had a vagina birth and no bed rest, you will only use up 10 weeks of FMLA for your pregnancy.
California Pregnancy Disability Leave Act aka PDL (up to four weeks prior to giving birth)
This California maternity leave law protects your job up to four weeks prior to giving birth. Your job is doubly protected under PDL and FMLA. It is more common for women to take two weeks off before giving birth (and usually these two weeks are the assumed amount of time you will take off when talking to your HR department).
PDL is the maternity leave law that protects your job; while the state disability insurance (SDI) pays a portion of your wages while you take this time off before giving birth. However, this is a “use it or lose it” deal so you cannot “save” two weeks to extend your maternity leave after giving birth.
I wanted to take advantage of the 4 weeks when I applied for maternity leave. It is a pretty simple process, but your doctor has to believe that it would be difficult for you to work the last month. Your doctor needs to fill out the paperwork for SDI to take you off work 4 weeks early.
Most women experience back pain or discomfort that make constant sitting or standing a problem by the 7th or 8th month anyway. It helps to discuss this option with your doctor at this time instead of talking about it too early on (you don’t want to appear to be faking it). Once your doctor filled out the paperwork, you just need to let your HR department know that your doctor believe you should be at home resting the last month instead of working. Your HR department cannot make this decision so there is no point in discussing it with them until you get your doctor’s ok on it.
Unfortunately, my due date was way off (and I kept telling my doctor it was too late), so I ended up working until the day I gave birth even though I was set to take maternity leave 4 weeks prior to giving birth. My baby is considered a preemie even though she did not exhibit any signs of a baby born several weeks early.
When you turn in the SDI paperwork to EDD for paid maternity leave before giving birth, you invoke PDL automatically. You can get this paperwork from your HR department or downloading the form from EDD. Your doctor needs to fill out a portion of the SDI form. This is usually separate from the note you turn in for FMLA.
California Family Rights Act aka CFRA (12 weeks)
This maternity leave law protects your job up to 12 weeks for bonding with your baby AFTER giving birth. Sometimes CFRA occurs in parallel with FMLA. But often this maternity leave law happens automatically after FMLA runs out if you live in California.
Bonding time with your baby is not covered by FMLA. CFRA protects your job while Paid Family Leave (PFL) is the paid portion of your maternity leave. After giving birth, EDD will mail you a form to fill out for the start date to use PFL (if I remember correctly, I got the form a couple of weeks after the birth of my daughter). If you are already receiving SDI, you just need to fill out the start date and sign the form. Since you can use CFRA and PFL up to a year after giving birth, you can choose when you would like to receive this maternity leave benefit. You can come back to work after 6 weeks and decide to use PFL later on if you wish.
How does all these maternity leave laws add up?
Vagina Birth:
- 4 weeks before (PDL/FMLA)
- 6 weeks after (FMLA)
- 12 weeks CFRA
- Total: 22 weeks
For a normal pregnancy, these maternity leave laws protect your job up to 5.5 months.
C-Section:
- 4 weeks before (PDL/FMLA)
- 8 weeks after (FMLA)
- 12 weeks CFRA
- Total: 24 weeks
For a C-section, these maternity leave laws protect your job up to 6 months.
Bed Rest (4 weeks):
- 4 weeks bed rest (FMLA)
- 4 weeks before (PDL)
- 6 or 8 weeks after (FMLA)
- 12 weeks CFRA
- Total: 26 or 28 weeks
These maternity leave laws protect your job up to 7 months if you need bed rest.
These maternity leave laws only protect your job while on maternity leave. Paid maternity leave is covered under SDI and PFL.
To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!
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Annie, thanks for all of the great information!
How do these laws change when you company has under 50 employees?
Julia,
Unfortunately if you work for a small company, these maternity leave laws do not apply. So a small company with less than 50 workers might have their own policy for maternity leave. I believe it has to do with the fact that it could become a hardship for small companies to hold a job for a pregnant woman without any guarantee that she would return to work after maternity leave.
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