Iowa Pregnancy Leave Law

[dougieshoney]

I am pregnant and expecting in June. I will not have been at my current employer long enough to qualify for FMLA. I understand that I will be entitled to six weeks (the time the doctor indicates I am medically unable to work)without pay during my maternity leave, but have heard conflicting information that under Iowa law I may be entitled to eight weeks. Any truth to that or is that only in the case of a c-section?
Thanks!

[LConnell]

Iowa doesn't have an FMLA. However, they do have a pregnancy leave law. According to the Iowa website: Iowa does have a law requiring pregnancy leave under certain circumstances if the employer or employee does not fall within the provisions of the federal FMLA. Section 216.6(2)(e) of the Iowa Civil Rights Act requires that qualified employers (those with at least 4 employees who are not related to the employer) must provide to pregnant employees all benefits the employer provides its employees under any kind of sick leave or disability plan, or eight weeks of job-protected leave, whichever amount of time is less. Thus an employee who may not qualify for 12 weeks of federal FMLA job-protected leave, may be entitled to at least eight weeks of job-protected leave under the Iowa law. There is no length of service or minimum hour requirements for employee eligibility for the job-protected leave under the Iowa pregnancy law.

You can read this at: http://www.iowaworkforce.org/faq/afmmain.asp