EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

At a time when many consumers are already scrambling, working parents face a squeeze on maternity leave pay and time off.

Employers are cutting back on post-childbirth pay for mothers and offering shorter leaves, on average, for both moms and dads, compared with a decade ago.

This comes despite research showing that attentive nurturing has particular developmental power in a baby's first year and that longer leaves can ease postpartum depression in some mothers.

The pattern heightens the need for parents to plan carefully for time off after childbirth.

Employers aren't deliberately targeting new mothers with pay cuts; rather, maternity leave has been caught in the crossfire over rising disability costs in general.

Most maternity leave pay in the U.S. comes in the form of disability pay, allotted for the six to eight weeks typically needed to heal after childbirth.

New mothers are being hit by a cost-cutting move among employers toward paying only a fraction of full pay to workers on short-term disability, rather than 100 percent as was common in the past, as an incentive for employees to return to work as soon as they're able. Nevertheless, the pattern risks pressuring new parents to race back to work too fast.

For many parents, even three months isn't enough.

Michelle Kwok, a medical resident, was four weeks into a planned three-month leave with her first baby when she realized she needed more time. The California mother asked for an extension and used sick and vacation days she'd saved to eke out a total of six months. Fortunately, she and her husband had been living frugally. But other dual-earner parents load up on debt.

An online survey of 419 working parents conducted by the parenting Web site UrbanBaby.com found that while many relied on a partner's income, savings or employer coverage to finance most of their parental leave time, about 23 percent used credit cards or loans.

A better approach: "As soon as you know you're pregnant or even before, start stashing away money and start banking the days" of paid vacation or sick leave provided by your employer, says Jill Gianola, an Ohio financial planner.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-p2maternity

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EMPLOYMENT POLICIES