The Expanded Maternity Leave Bill

A month into maternity leave.
My second child was born on July 19, 2017. He's a healthy baby, large for me at 8 pounds and 60 centimeters. Soon to be Pinay mommies must have heard about the new maternity bill approved by both congress and senate and are probably jumping for joy.. just like I was up until June this year.

Sorry ladies, the bill still needs the president's approval and it doesn't seem to be a priority right now. There hasn't been a relevant update on the bill's status and implementation since March 2017.

Under the new bill, Senate Bill 1305, the Expanded Maternity Leave Law of 2017, mothers can avail of 120 days maternity leave from the current 60 days regardless of civil status or the child's legitimacy. 30 days of these may be transferred as well to an alternate caregiver and fathers'paternity leave will go from 7 days to 30 days.

Here is the proposed bill:
Expanded Maternity Leave

What is unclear under the new bill is the SSS maternity benefit. Its a complicated thing to explain but basically the maximum SSS maternity benefit is around 30k for the current 60 day maternity leave. If you earn more than that per month you better save up for the paycut. The new bill says employees must receive not less than 2/3 of their regular monthly wages and that the difference between the SSS Maternity Benefit shall be covered by the employer. I inquired with my employer's HR and as of May they had not received clear guidelines on the implementation and were waiting for details from the SSS.

If you would like to compute for your maternity benefit click here:
SSS Maternity Benefit Computation

So here I am, with a less than a month to enjoy full time care of my little boy secretly still hoping this new bill will be enacted before my 60 days are up!

Comments

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