Other paid leave

Cornell: short term medical leave

Harvard, Princeton, University of Maryland: personal days

University of Chicago: between quarters

University of Florida: postdoc leave

Notes

In the above graph, it is assumed that I have not used any of my sick or vacation leave prior to giving birth. However, in real life, I had the medically recommended amount of medical care. Between the start of my appointment and giving birth, I had 1 baseline appointment with my primary caregiver (required by my health insurance because I was a new patient in the system), 1 dental cleaning, and 11 prenatal appointments (9 standard checkups, 1 ultrasound, and 1 non-standard injection due to a pregnancy-related medical condition). I was able to group together one of the checkups and the ultrasound. Assuming a half-day off for each appointment, I needed to take 6 days off before I gave birth. (And I’m assuming here that my older child’s father took him to his necessary medical appointments, which isn’t what happened in real life.) Here’s what the graph looks like if I subtract 6 days of sick/vacation leave. Assuming a salary of $42,000, for institutions where my maternity leave is curtailed due to those six lost days, the financial penalty is at least an additional $920. Note that the University of Montana did not even provide enough leave for me to meet my medical needs before birth.