NJ moms who returned to work post-baby

[Velar Fricative]

Yes, very specific.

I'm putting the cart wayyyyyyyy before the horse right now, but I learned that I am the top choice for a position I just interviewed for this week in NJ. No guarantees, but unless I bomb any follow-up questions I think I will get an offer. So I'm already looking ahead to later this year when I'll be on maternity leave for a few months. I know NJ has fairly unique paid family leave and temporary disability insurance that seem like they will cover the majority of my time on leave even if the maximum weekly payout won't be what I expect to earn each week, but I'll take what I can get! 

Just wanted to see what your experiences were like - did TDI/PFL end up covering most (or all?) of your leave? If you had vacation/sick days accrued to cover your ML, did you have to take those first before TDI/PFL kicked in or did those cover the remaining days? Anything else I should know (paperwork, etc.)?

[Deleted]

I work for a small company and don't have separate STD, so the family leave + bonding was my whole leave, 12 weeks. You can go out before giving birth, I think 3 weeks? and it doesn't count against the post-birth leave. However, I believe you have to be employed for 12 months to be eligible at all.
Paperwork is here:
lwd.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/black_red_fl1_R8-14.pdf
ETA: and here: lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/WDS1.pdf
general info is here lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/fliindex.html

[Deleted]

Also, unless there is a separate STD plan or top up (like what my DH had through his job), there is a max on the benefits. It's 60% of your prior year's wages up to a max of either $585 or $595/week (I forget). Doing the math, that is equal to just over $50k/year. I make slightly under the max, so I didn't get the max. Also I was screwed bc I got a 20% raise in February, so I only had 1 full quarter of the higher rate that went into my benefit calculation.

[ClosingTime08]

You are allowed to go out on leave 4 weeks before your due date. My company (in conjunction with STD) paid 6 weeks of my maternity leave (meaning I still received full pay for 6 weeks after which I think may be unique to my company). After that it was the STD/FMLA combo (I had no time left when I went out so I didn't use any of my time but you had to use it if you had any). My company had given me a handout that once I had the baby, I called the number to say ok I am starting my leave (I worked until I was taken out for medical issues). I personally got a check every week from the state. To the other posters point, there is a cap on what STD will pay out. I made more than the STD so I got 60% of the max. I think I just repeated what @mrsspunky said so hopefully that makes sense.

ETA: I had 3 months of leave after I had the baby which was all taken care of between STD/FMLA

[Velar Fricative]

Jan 16, 2015 9:20:58 GMT -5 @mrsspunky said:

I work for a small company and don't have separate STD, so the family leave + bonding was my whole leave, 12 weeks. You can go out before giving birth, I think 3 weeks? and it doesn't count against the post-birth leave. However, I believe you have to be employed for 12 months to be eligible at all.
Paperwork is here:
lwd.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/black_red_fl1_R8-14.pdf
ETA: and here: lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/WDS1.pdf
general info is here lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/fliindex.html

Well crap, in all my research I missed that important little nugget lol.

[Deleted]

Good news- the benefit is up to $604/week in 2015
lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/WPR-119%20(1-15).pdf
lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/WPR-117.pdf

It also appears that you only have to have worked 20 weeks in the prior 12 months, but I don't know how that would affect the calculation of benefits if you weren't employed in NJ prior to that.

[Velar Fricative]

@cookiemonster03 - No health coverage needed if I get this job, I plan to stick with DH's insurance since it's really great (and offers more doc options for NYC residents).

[Deleted]

Jan 16, 2015 9:34:53 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Jan 16, 2015 9:20:58 GMT -5 @mrsspunky said:

I work for a small company and don't have separate STD, so the family leave + bonding was my whole leave, 12 weeks. You can go out before giving birth, I think 3 weeks? and it doesn't count against the post-birth leave. However, I believe you have to be employed for 12 months to be eligible at all.
Paperwork is here:
lwd.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/black_red_fl1_R8-14.pdf
ETA: and here: lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/forms_pdfs/tdi/WDS1.pdf
general info is here lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/fliindex.html

Well crap, in all my research I missed that important little nugget lol.

If you look at the 2 last PDFs I linked, it seems like it's only 20 weeks you have to work.
Except the way that I read it, it would seem that they take your weekly wage or the max, whichever is lower, multiply by the number of weeks and then divide by 52 weeks. So if you make 52k and work 30 weeks in this job before going out, your benefit is based on $30k worth of annual wages vs. $52k.

[ClosingTime08]

For those that got the debit card, did they put all your leave money on it once you got it? I had read about the debit card but I actually got a paper check each week. Also did it take a long time to get the debit card (I had heard that it took a long time to get benefits). I am just asking because we had some changes within the company and I am curious if a future ML may result in a debit card.

[Deleted]

Jan 16, 2015 9:40:55 GMT -5 ClosingTime08 said:

For those that got the debit card, did they put all your leave money on it once you got it? I had read about the debit card but I actually got a paper check each week. Also did it take a long time to get the debit card (I had heard that it took a long time to get benefits). I am just asking because we had some changes within the company and I am curious if a future ML may result in a debit card.

The first few weeks were paid at once, then additional weeks were on the card that particular week. Transfers to a regular checking account took like a week.
All benefits are via debit card now.

[Velar Fricative]

Jan 16, 2015 9:39:06 GMT -5 @mrsspunky said:

Jan 16, 2015 9:34:53 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Well crap, in all my research I missed that important little nugget lol.

If you look at the 2 last PDFs I linked, it seems like it's only 20 weeks you have to work.
Except the way that I read it, it would seem that they take your weekly wage or the max, whichever is lower, multiply by the number of weeks and then divide by 52 weeks. So if you make 52k and work 30 weeks in this job before going out, your benefit is based on $30k worth of annual wages vs. $52k.

Thanks. Based on timeline I expect to be working there late February so that gives me about 29 weeks before my due date, so I should be safe. Like I said, it won't be much given the max but it's still a pretty great benefit and I'll take what I can get.

[Deleted]

Also I think Odonata had an issue wrt her H's payout b/c he's a teacher and thus had off for the summer and it affected his 52 base weeks. I wonder if they ever got that straightened out. She might be able to provide more info as to the calculations, if I am incorrect in the way I am reading the notices.

[Deleted]

Here's her post on it Velar Fricative
pandce.proboards.com/thread/389517/hs-fml-nonsense-justified-vent

[kershnic]

I live in NJ but worked in NY so got nothing. Woe is me!

Good luck!

[Velar Fricative]

Jan 16, 2015 9:52:05 GMT -5 kershnic said:

I live in NJ but worked in NY so got nothing. Woe is me!

Good luck!

That sucks - I didn't even think about the sheer numbers of people who live in NJ and work in NY that aren't entitled to this benefit (same for living in NJ and working in PA). 

I'm sorry New York blows.

[Odonata]

For my leave, disability covered for 6 weeks and I received 66 2/3% of my weekly pay.

After disability was over I then had to apply for FML, which is sometimes a fiasco. Just a head's up: You can't apply (or even fill out the forms) until AFTER you are no longer receiving disability pay. They will ask you for income information from your employer for the past 10 weeks and then will average those 10 weeks to come up with the amount you will be paid. If you had zero income during those 10 weeks it will be averaged into that amount - which was the issue with my husband.

For me, they were waiting for income information from a summer job I worked for a month in July - something that I was not originally asked to report on. The process took 7 weeks so I had zero income for over a month. The money came in a debit card and it took another week to link the debit card account to my checking account and then another 3 days to transfer the funds. So almost 2 months w/o pay. Be prepared to dig into savings if your paycheck covers any monthly bills.

As far as using sick/vacation days: I don't have any at my job so it was not an issue but I do believe you may be required to use sick/vacation time (I think up to 2 weeks?) before FML will kick in, but this depends on your employer.

According to what I've read, you must have "12 months of service" for that employer - but it does not have to be a consecutive 12 months.

Here is the Q and A from the site that can give you more information. The site also allows you to sign in and follow your claim, which is nice.
www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/additional/fmla-qa.htm

[vmars]

I was able to take up to 4 weeks prior of std, 8 weeks after of std, and 12 weeks of fmla, and 1 week of stored vacation time from the prior year I had saved in my bank. I did need to use any remaining vaca days first but DS was born in December and I went out around thanksgiving so I didn't have too many days - maybe a weekish?

Also, you have to work for the company a certain number of hours first before you qualify for FMLA so check on that -- I think it's over 1,000 hours.

The debit card thing was annoying bc once I got it I had to wait an extra week or two if I wanted the balance automatically transferred to my bank acct. the whole thing took longer than 8 weeks to start getting paid but DH was still working so it was okay.