Salary and Maternity

voodoo

Hi all,

Quick question for you all....

Is there any legal obligations on an employer to provide salary for a woman while on maternity leave? My wife has looked into this and she says that her company (whom she has worked for for over 6 years), have a policy, whereby she will not recieve pay while on maternity and will have to suffice with only recieving something like €220 a week from social welfare.... Surely that's not allowable!!!

Anyone got any thoughts or previous experience of this?

Nuttzz

There is no legal obligation on employers to pay beyond social welfare rates. It is pretty standard practice in small companies to do this. Bigger companies do pay more but the key here is "No legal obligation". Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

voodoo

That is crazy in this day and age... I mean, this is no small company and has quite a large turnover a year! She holds a pretty high position within the company as well!

Victor

Originally posted by voodoo
Is there any legal obligations on an employer to provide salary for a woman while on maternity leave?

No, unless there is something in their contract.

Feel lucky, maternity allowance is pay-adjusted (one of the few benefits that is), some women will only get about €130. The government decided that it should bear the burden of maternity pay, not individual businesses. As it needs to be socially progressive, the policy allocates the benefit in as equal a manner as possible.

Would you advocate companies paying more each time someone has a child?

voodoo

QUOTE]maternity allowance is pay-adjusted (one of the few benefits that is[/QUOTE]

Can you explain this a little further? Do the govt pay a percentage of the salary then or is it a fixed sum that they pay weekly/Monthly?

Victor

As I understand it, someone earning say €150 a week before maternity leave would be entitled to the basic minimum, someone earning say €300 a week would get more and someone earning say €600 (or €6,000) would get the maxium rate.

http://www.welfare.ie/publications/sw11.html

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Nuttzz
There is no legal obligation on employers to pay beyond social welfare rates. It is pretty standard practice in small companies to do this. Bigger companies do pay more but the key here is "No legal obligation". Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

Lots of big companies don't pay either. Its pretty common. You'd want to ask about part time work too, as many companies don't like people doing this either.

Victor

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
You'd want to ask about part time work too, as many companies don't like people doing this either.

Maybe I have the context wrong, but Maternity Benefit isn't paid to people who work through their maternity leave (presumably to stop employers forcing people to work during maternity leave). See link above.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Victor
Maybe I have the context wrong, but Maternity Benefit isn't paid to people who work through their maternity leave (presumably to stop employers forcing people to work during maternity leave). See link above.

I was actually talking about after maternity leave. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

voodoo

Am I correct in assuming that once my wife goes on maternity, that as she is not earning a salary, that my tax should be adjusted immediately to reflect this and I should recieve a higher level of tax credits for that period?

Victor

Probably, but the Mrs. might find it unfair, you getting "her" money

Maternity Benefit is not taxable.