Does anybody see something wrong with this picture?

I’ve worked on a relatively consistent basis for the past 20 years. During that time, I went to college, took a couple of stabs at grad school and found a career. I got married 2-1/2 years ago and on April 22, we welcomed a baby girl.

I work for a “small” company which has 70 employees and I’ve been there for 2 years. Great bunch of folks and the owners are very much into the staff having a “work-life” balance. I knew that my job would be protected through FMLA but I was in for a big surprise for everything else tied into my maternity leave.

I work for an engineering firm and there aren’t a lot of women my age in the company. The women that work there either done having kids or aren’t even thinking of having them so I had a tough time getting my questions answered in terms of what I stand to receive financially while on leave. When I joined the firm, I added long-term disability to my benefits package but I learned that LTD doesn’t help me with leave. I am out on short term disability and I was beyond shocked to find out that I am entitled to $170 a week which is payable every two weeks. The State of New York’s disability program grants workers to get 50% of one’s salary, up to $170 a week. Not for nothing, it’s been a long time since I’ve made $8.50 an hour (which yields $340 a week). It goes without saying that I’m pretty pissed off that I have to live on a small fraction of my weekly salary. I find it pretty messed up that a person collecting unemployment can receive up to $405 a week but the maximum for disability is $170.

What does one do in such a situation? My husband and I mentioned the possibility of my returning to work 2 months earlier than I planned. It was my intention to take 14 weeks off and I found the possibility of reducing my time off to be heartbreaking to say the least. There were times that I found myself without a job and I found the drama & BS associated with collecting unemployment to be too much and I found it to be more profitable to temp. I don’t know what brainiac determined that $170 a week is sufficient for somebody that’s unable to work to maintain some type of lifestyle. The reality is that living expenses including mortgage, utilities and food still need to be paid as well as other incidental expenses that one incurs. Also remember, that this is disability which means that one needs to provide certifications from a doctor attesting to the inability to work and the last I checked, going to see a doctors costs money.

My health insurance coverage was carried by my firm for the first 6 weeks of disability and I got a letter stating that continuing my coverage can happen via COBRA at a tidy sum of $1,100/month and some change. Oh gee, I don't even break $700 a month on disability.