Hi,

I work for a law firm in NYC and just found out if I adopt, I am entitled to 12 weeks under the Family Medical Leave Act without any pay. This upsets me beyond belief. I MEAN, if I gave birth I would 6-8 weeks paid for recovery/adjustment/bonding..... I realize you need time to recover from the labor/delivery and I'm NOT making light of that, however, I think SOMETHING would be nice for us adoptive parents.....even if it's a week to acknowledge that we ARE parents/whether or not we physically gave birth! I think it is REALLY DISGUSTING in todays world that something like this could go unrecognized! Since I work for a law firm, I'm sure everything is LEGAL, however, I am very upset about this......any thoughts???????

Thanks.
Linda

I totally agree with you. We are given the short end of the stick. I took 9 weeks FMLA when we adopted our son. When I found out that two male teachers in my school were able to take sick days (one and two weeks) I asked to get payed out of my sick days as well. My union approached the Superintendent about it and he said no. When it was mentioned again, he said that he would request the money back from the male teachers if we pushed it. Due to the fact that I was up for tenure, and layoffs were announced, I did not pursue it. I was very happy however when the superintendent retired last year.
Michelle

Linda

I work for a municipality and we don't get paid leave regardless of bio birth or adoption, but we do get the 12 weeks off and we can use our sick time and any other time we have coming to us to get paid for it. We are also allowed to bank it so if I wanted to take 1 full month off and then go part time for a while and still get full time pay I could do so. I don't know if this is written into the federal law or not, but it isn't too often that govern. will give much more than they have to although I did finally convince them to give $5000 adoption assistance since we also have Infertility coverage explaining that it is a popular thing now plus they could save twice that if not more if people chose to adopt vs IF treatments. I would research it and maybe just bring it up to them to allow sick time to be used at the least. Many times as far a pgs go they get to claim diability after 30 days. More and more companies are doing away with paid maternaty leaves because of that. Good luck and the National adoption information clearing house and possibly adopt.org might help as far as employee adoption benefits go

The size of your company and the type often determines what benefits are afforded individuals (I work in Human Resources). My husband and I just adopted twin babies and while he was able to take 6 weeks of (accumulated) sick time because one of the babies was in the NICU, I had to use my vacation time. I did negotiate 2 weeks of 'extra' paid time for the very reason you mentioned (sometimes, being in HR is a GOOD thing), but ultimately am taking off a bunch of unpaid time. In some places, you can even take a longer absence. FMLA is 12 weeks, but some places allow you to take further unpaid time...Just have to ask! GOOD LUCK!

Linda,

When my husband and I adopted our son, he had no adoption benefits in the small company he worked for. But everyone was so thrilled about the adoption, he was given paid paternity leave. He didn't even ask for it, they just offered. A lot of companies will be glad to work something out with you if you ask.

Peggy

New laws come into effect when people such as us make people aware of the unfair differences, and try to push to enact legislation to make a chance.

It's okay to vent about it, believe me, go for it! -- but on a separate note, maybe we should all try and DO something about it too?

You should all move to Canada !!

We get 8 months leave for an adoption, paid at 55 % of your salary by the goverment and most companies top it up so that you are getting 100% of your salary!

Mind you, if you give birth you get a full year. The 8 months is considered parental leave, the same that a husband would get if he decided to take the time off. Our leave can also be split between both spouses. Example both off togethere for 4 months, one off for the first 4 months and then the other off etc..

Sorry that you don't get treated better.

try and make your case. my company gave me 6 weeks paid leave and a few sick days (there are dr. appts w/adoption). a colleague here was really good at fighting for change and making the birth analogy and it was supported here. you need to make the case w/HR. they don't need to pay you but some companies will

I guess Im used to the discrimination with infertility, especially from the insurance companies. My husband had a heck of a time getting time off for treatments.
We get absolutely no benefits at all. Even if I give birth I have no maternity leave, so Im not treated any differently than anyone else here.
I think its awful that you are. You should make your complaint known. Its the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and if I were you Id do a lot of loud squealing