I wonder what our elected officials have to say about this

To say that I am pissed off about what rights women have for maternity leave is an understatement. I found out that I am cut off from disability and that led to my decision to return to work 5 weeks earlier than I intended. I started writing about what annoys me about the system and sent that text to my elected officials. The following contains portions of what I sent.

For years, I have heard about the rights (or lack thereof) that women have when they go on maternity leave. In recent months, I learned firsthand about the deplorable conditions that women are subjected to when taking time off from work to give birth and spend time recovering…[I] was in for the biggest surprise of my life when I learned that the most that I am entitled to from disability is $170 per week; this equals 12% of my weekly salary. To make matters worse, the economy doesn’t help matters; my husband lost his job as an engineer and hasn’t had much luck securing employment. What we collect on a monthly basis between his unemployment benefits and my disability payments is less than what I gross on a bi-weekly basis when I work. I found comfort in the fact that I was able to work until my 37th week of pregnancy (6 days before my daughter was born) even though my doctor classified my pregnancy as high-risk and am fortunate that I have a job to go back to at the conclusion of my leave. I knew that I had the right to take 12 weeks off under FMLA and my firm allowed me to take 14 weeks.

My firm doesn’t have a “human resources” department so it was difficult for me to find out what I will be facing while I’m on leave; the only concrete thing that I knew of is that my job was protected. As part of my benefits package, I paid into a disability package only to learn that those payments were for a “long term disability” program which did not apply to my situation. The maximum payment I could receive on “short term disability” is $170 a week which is beyond insulting and inhumane; to add insult to injury, the State Disability Board reserves the right to terminate payments 6 weeks after the birth of a child. Since “disability” implies that one had a medical condition that forbids a person to work, there is a need to carry health insurance to pay for doctor visits to continue the certification of not being allowed to work; the substandard disability payments make paying for COBRA impossible.

It is rather disconcerting that a woman who has worked hard to forge a career path has to be forced to live in destitution because she decided to take time off to have a baby...I loathe the fact that this detestable situation forces me to go back to work a lot earlier than I intended and I wonder how productive I will be on a day-to-day basis. My daughter isn’t sleeping though the night which means that I’m getting up a few times per night to take care of her. I can’t operate at my peak if I’m sleep deprived.…

Quite frankly, I don’t know what genius determined that $170 a week is acceptable compensation for somebody that’s unable to work while somebody that’s unemployed can collect up to $405 per week. The fact is that living expenses (mortgage, utilities, etc.) and other incidental expenses need to be paid; LIPA, National Grid et al don’t want to hear “I can’t pay because I’m on disability,” they only want to hear that payment is on the way. Additionally, unemployment compensation is paid weekly via direct deposit while disability is paid biweekly by a paper check which is mailed. My first check was for $170 (before deductions) and I had to wait 2 weeks to get another check for $340 (before deductions). I am owed a check which is a week late and when I checked the automated system, I found out that I was only paid for three days instead of 10. I resent that a bureaucracy is messing with my money and feels justified in doing so. A person that’s collecting unemployment is encouraged to find temporary assignments and if he or she can’t secure such assignments during a given week, there’s a payment of $405 that will be arriving. Meanwhile, a person that doesn’t have medical authorization to work is basically penalized for being unable to work. This disparity doesn’t give one much encouragement to try and maintain employment with a company when getting fired would be more profitable.

It’s tough to fathom that a global economic leader places such low values on the rights of working mothers. There seems to be a higher concern for residents of countries that can’t be located on a map and I feel that’s completely disgusting.