I am pretty sure that I am going to be fired before I even go on maternity leave. (Im 31 weeks pregnant) They dont have a reason why I will be fired, but I am not protected from FMLA because of various reasons. And I know that they will come up with some off the wall reason as to letting me go. However that is not really my concern. My question is, if they let me go, Do I go on Short term disablility and Paid Family Leave as I had planned, or do I just get to go on unemployment. I know that STD and PFL is paid at 55% of your salary based on the yearly wages from a certain point, and I know how much I was going to get, but what about the unemployment. Is that a different rate because that is paid by the firing employee rather than myself. Im just confused about what I will be able to do because Im pretty sure I wont be able to find a job this far along in my pregnancy. Any advice at all would be helpful. Sorry so long
Hydro

You can not be fired for being pregnant but you can be fired for other reasons. Making up a reason to fire you as a pretext for pregnancy discrimination is also illegal. Why are you so sure you will be fired?

If you are let go, you could apply for UC so long as you are seeking and willing to accept employment. You would only be able to collect disability if you were in fact, disabled.

When you are disabled, you will get SDI, but it will be taxable like unemployment.

Actually, the taxability "depends".

Your SDI benefits are taxable only if you receive Disability Insurance benefits in place of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits. In this case, your SDI benefits are considered a substitution for your UI benefits, which are taxable.
http://www.edd.cahwnet.gov/direp/difaq2.htm#Benefits

Megan, would you consider the OP's situation as the exception here?

Well I wasnt fired. but I think that they are trying to get me to quit. they dropped my hours to about half of what I was getting. Can they do this. They said it was due to shipping slowing to nothing, but no one has ever had their hours cut before. What can I do??

If shipping slows to nothing then yes, they can legally cut your hours.

You should file for unemployment now, without quitting then. You can get unemployment while you are still employed if your hours are cut significantly.

And Patty, I read that section as meaning that anyone who is unemployed but eligible for SDI has to pay taxes-I haven't checked, but I assumed that an unemployed person would only qualify for SDI if they would otherwise qualify for unemployment.

Well its about a 300 dollar loss on each paycheck (600/month) that I was not prepared to take yet. We were going to use this last month and a half that I will be working to save up for our new arrival. I have been trying to get ahold of our EDD office to find out more information in regards to the partial unemployment, but this is mon so the phone lines are packed, and its one of the only 3 days I will be working this week, so I cant leave and go down there. I wish some people werent so horrible. Thank you for your help

File a case online, and let them decide to approve it or not. www.edd.ca.gov https://eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov/htm/cpgPreScreen.htm
Worst case scenario, you wasted ten minutes.

I just wanted to find out my odds of getting anything before filling and putting myself worse off with my employer than I already am. I wanted to make sure that it would be worth it.

Our opinion and $2 will get you a cup of coffee (maybe). ;)

However, if you are adversely treated or discharged for asserting your legal right to file a claim, that could be a wrongful termination suit just waiting to happen. That would be really dumb of your employer.