Interesting column by Charles Wheelan at yahoo finance this week about the phenomenon of women taking maternity leave at their jobs and then quitting the job once the maternity leave is over. They get the benefits of maternity leave, including at least partial pay, often knowing full well that they won't be coming back to the job. Wheelan's position is that this flaunts the maternity leave benefit and that employers should structure it differently so that the pay benefit is actually spread out over the first year AFTER the woman comes back to the job.

First off, I should admit that my own wife did this, and, while it was within her rights, she did feel a little sneaky about it, because of course her boss and co-workers planned on her being back and her boss wasn't too happy about her quitting without getting much advance notice. (Of course if she'd given advance notice then she wouldn't have been able to get the maternity leave benefit in the first place.)

I'm not sure how I feel about Wheelan's suggestion. Yes, employers don't like it when women use their maternity leaves as a paid vacation and then quit. So it would make sense for them to structure it differently. On the other hand, one of the ways an employer woos new employees is via the benefits offered. If one employer says "we'll give you X benefits for maternity leave, but you only get them after you come back from leave," while a second employer just gives the straight benefit with no conditions, a woman who may be considering having a baby in the next few years will find the second offer more attractive (assuming all other things about the jobs being equal). Like many benefits, each employer needs to consider how generous to be.

It's an interesting topic. I know that my wife & I didn't like "pretending" that she was coming back, but the reality was that the benefit was structured in such a way that she couldn't tell the truth if she wanted the money (and we needed the money). From one perspective, you feel unethical, but from the other perspective you feel like you're playing by the rules that the employer set. And in a time when employers aren't so loyal to employees, it's not too difficult to justify the behavior to yourself.

Thoughts?