When I am If I were to be King of the Universe, every new mother would receive eighteen months of paid maternity leave at their full salary with no cap (right now, I think it's something like $1600/month as the maximum you can collect no matter what you make as a salary). There would be no maximum amount that could be paid out but for people earning less or no income, there would be a minimum payment (why not $1600/month for poetic justice's sake?) As well, every father would receive a month of paid paternity leave, also at their full regular salary.
But until that day comes, I'll head back to work tomorrow and think of Canada's $51 Billion dollar EI surplus while wondering, WTF is that for anyhow?
(Someday I'll detail my attempt to claim EI after a year of being a student, knowing this was totally against regulations and being totally shot down as expected – but at any rate, the story of my appeal hearing is a good one! 😉)
Comments 2
(sigh)
Jason, when you're King of the Universe, I'm going to have more babies.
It's goofy, particularly because most government-subsidised daycares won't take infants until they're 18 months old, but Mat Leave only 'works' for a year. Paternal leave is a bit of a joke, although there are still places you can't get any paid paternity leave at all unless you do it on your own time. It's only just been recently that adoptive parents qualify for parental leave.
I also tried to argue the case that I should qualify for part-time disability when I was in pre-maternity and immediately following, in the post-maternity period, that wouldn't take anything away from the EI claim. That went over like a bag of rocks in a paper boat.
It's annoying as hell, because the system seems to be designed to force you either to become a one-income family, or to spend a big chunk of your income on daycare, rather than promoting at-home parenting for a reasonable amount of time (I'd go so far as to suggest a minimum of 24 months paid leave, since babies need so much parental care, and since they're so attached to you at least until then).
Good post, man. Give my best to Shea. I hope her difficulties are clearing up…and say hey to Pace for me.
Yeah, that “18-months for the new mom” idea basically came from you telling me about the strange gap between standard mat leave and the age when daycares start taking kids.
I think that 24 months is a good number – a nice balance between the needs of the family (which should take priority) and the needs of the workforce (simply out of fariness, mothers probably shouldn't be able to take never-ending mat leaves of 3 or 5 years.)