Top-up Maternity Benefits – a useful strategy for retaining workers

Although in Canada some employers top up maternity and parental benefits, raising the total of their employees’ regular pay, few Canadians get extra payments. Even though it appears to be a useful strategy for retaining workers, since most employers with top-up plans have a written agreement asking staff to return to their jobs within a specified time and for a minimum period of time.

Within 18 months of the birth of their child, 96% of the workers with paid benefits and a top-up, returned to work for the same employer. While 77% of mothers with paid benefits and no top-up, and 46% without either returned to their old workplaces.

Public-sector workers are far more likely to get extra income, and for a longer period of time than private sector workers. The same goes for workers in large companies, compared with mothers who work in small companies. And the same differences are noted between women in Quebec who are more likely to receive a top-up, and those living elsewhere.