Big Law Maternity Leave and Bonuses Forum

[Anonymous User]

What has people's experiences been with taking maternity and how did it impact your bonus? Both hours and bonus amount prorated? Nothing at all? All of the bonus?

[Anonymous User]

What has people's experiences been with taking maternity and how did it impact your bonus? Both hours and bonus amount prorated? Nothing at all? All of the bonus?

I can only speak to paternity leave. I took the full amount allowed at my firm. My hours requirement for bonus eligibility was prorated, but I received the full, non-prorated bonus amount for hitting my prorated hours.

[Anonymous User]

What has people's experiences been with taking maternity and how did it impact your bonus? Both hours and bonus amount prorated? Nothing at all? All of the bonus?

It's entirely firm dependent and usually fairly complicated of a policy to figure out so I recommend running it down with your HR.

At my firm, hours to hit bonus target were prorated for allotted parental leave time (but not for vacation time taken after expiration of parental leave). As long as you hit your prorated hours, you got full bonus. I recommend checking with HR about exactly how many hours you need if your policy is similar to this (particularly if your leave runs concurrently with holidays). People have gotten screwed because HR excluded holidays from the prorated hours amount w/o this being expressly in the policy, which changed the amount of required prorated hours by 60 hours or so.

[Anonymous User]

What has people's experiences been with taking maternity and how did it impact your bonus? Both hours and bonus amount prorated? Nothing at all? All of the bonus?

It's entirely firm dependent and usually fairly complicated of a policy to figure out so I recommend running it down with your HR.

At my firm, hours to hit bonus target were prorated for allotted parental leave time (but not for vacation time taken after expiration of parental leave). As long as you hit your prorated hours, you got full bonus. I recommend checking with HR about exactly how many hours you need if your policy is similar to this (particularly if your leave runs concurrently with holidays). People have gotten screwed because HR excluded holidays from the prorated hours amount w/o this being expressly in the policy, which changed the amount of required prorated hours by 60 hours or so.

Thanks, this helpful and good to think about since mine will overlap with vacation time some!

[shock259]

Definitely check with HR. At my old BL firm, your billable hour requirement would be prorated according to the time you were out. If you hit your prorated hours, you get a prorated bonus. If you hit your full hours, you would get your full bonus as if the leave never happened. I don't think there was anything in the middle.