CO Maternity Benefis vs. CA (home, buying, moving)

[sharlalulu]

I was wondering if anyone can help explain what (if any) maternity leave benefits are in CO? I had my first baby in CA, and I know they are really good here, 6-8 weeks paid state disability, then an additional 6 weeks CA paid leave. Plus an additional 6 weeks of unpaid. I know there's no CO paid leave, but what about state disability, any paid leave at all when you have a baby?

[Amery523]

You're going to hate my answer.
I had my son in Feb 2007. Like you my first child was born in CA.

Here in CO they do not offer any state disability paid benefits for maternity leave.
The only money you will get is any vacation or sick time from your employer or PTO bank. That is IT! FMLA is still 12 weeks at most work places, depends on your employer.

This is why I went back to work at 8 weeks post. He was my "surprise" baby and therefore I didn't have very much PTO and major sick time saved up.

With my first child in CA, the state paid me 6 weeks, and then my FMLA kicked in after that, so I took a total of 18 weeks. I think I ran out of PTO around week 12, so the last month was unpaid. But totally worth it to have nearly 5 months home to bond with my daughter.

[sharlalulu]

Thanks for the info, I was worried that was going to be the case. I hadn't realized until recently when we started looking at moving how good of maternity benefits CA actually had. I love our country, but it makes me sad how far behind the rest of the world we are on maternity leave benefits!

Thanks again for such a quick reply!

[Paul2011]

I recommend negotiating your own paid/non-paid time off with your own employer. Since I'm sure you're a value-adding, quality employee to your employer's business, she will see it as in her best interest to do so, without vote-buying state politicians unnecessarily being involved at all.