Hi there, my friend is now happily pregnant but has been told by her managment consultancy that the maternity leave she is entitled too is 6 weeks full time, ie close on the statuatory minimum. Personallly I think its a disgrace. What are other management consutancies maternity leave policies like?

That's the pay she gets. Full time at 6 weeks then statutory maternity pay (SMP) at whatever the current rate is - something like a couple of hundred quid a month.Regarding the leave, she will be entitled to around 9 months off of work, not 6 weeks.

So she is supposed to live off a couple of hundred pounds per month after 6 weeks? My sister works for a large telecom and gets 6 months full pay 3 months half pay. Why would a large management consultancy not reward their staff at a similar level? I guess it comes down to how you value your staff. What are other management consultancies like?

Please tell me she's having a kid for other reasons than paid time off work... surely?

Some employers offer more than the statutory minimum.But the statutory minimum itself isn't a huge amount.Basically, she's going to have less (and potentially a LOT less) money coming in each month when she's on maternity leave.Whether that's fair or not is a matter of debate. But that's how it is.I would suggest she sits down with her partner and they have a serious conversation about financial planning and how they are going to make ends meet in the future, now that their circumstances have changed.

Yes Inigo, relax, I can assure you she is having a baby for other reasons than just some paid time off. The question stands though, what do other management consultancies provide in terms of maternity cover? A little benchmarking exercise if you will..... eg Accenture, Deloitte, PA, E&Y, Booze, PWC etc...

Now I'm starting to smell a rat.If you work in the HR department of some company that's taking a fresh look at the package it offers to new recruits and your boss has told you to gather some benchmarks, just say so!Anyway, in answer to your question, the company I work for (medium sized company) offers statutory minimum except for they give full pay for 2 months instead of 6 weeks. Not sure what the brand name competitors offer.

Accenture give full pay for 9 months. You also accrue holiday so you in fact get 10 months full pay. When you come back you're entitled to flexible work arrangements so think 4 day weeks etc obv the pay is prorated from your previous contract.All the women I know up to n incl. manager have taken this full time off. Also while you're out your performance rating isn't affected so it's basically like you didn't go anywhere are all.If you choose flexible working it does make it a little harder to find a project as they'd obviously like you working all day every day but I know a few women who do it and it works for them.

No rats to smell sorry Dave!Its interesting though, if you compare Accenture with this other 2 lettered organisation, it makes it much more appealing if you are a woman, say 30 years old who is looking to have a baby over the next 5 years, to join someone like accenture doesnt it.

Pretty sure someone was trying to benchmark this a few months ago for their startup.

When comparing maternity pay packages actual amount and duration of pay is secondary to probability of returning to work (as almost all firms have a claw-back clause should the mother not return to work for a minimum period (often a year).It’s all very well getting nine months full pay, but if the firm is an up-or-out, leave your kids with the nanny for the week, travel the globe sort of place, the maternity pay all too often becomes a temporary loan to be paid back.

I can't vouch for the consulting side, but my wife is a Senior Manager in Deloitte's tax practice. She's just returned after her second maternity leave.Her maternity pay was 6 weeks on full pay, 1/3 of her salary up for weeks 6-26 and then onto statutory for up to 52 weeks.On returning to work she then received a return to work bonus equivalent to 6 weeks pay that was pro-rated based on the hours she returned (which in her case was 60% as she went back 3 days a week). This bonus is repayable if she leaves the firm within 12 months of returning.As for other firms, I have a colleague who may be joining E&Y Advisory and she says their maternity package is really good and you are eligible for it after you have been there only six months.

So, by giving that bonus upon return to work, could it be argued that they are incentivising women to put their kids into childcare and instead focus on their career?

acn uk has 9 months full salary.

It's her choice to leave work to have a baby, why should the company pay anything?

Shouldn't maternity allowance be the same as sickness allowance - they're both an absence from work for health reasons?That would stop people complaining.

The thing is, pregnancy isn't an illness. The two happen for different reasons and have different implications for the individual.

are there any employers who would offer continuous serial maternity leave on the basis of one baby a year without the need to return in between (I'm thinking accrued holiday etc could take care of the gaps)? It's quite an attractive funcing model..