France wants to increase parental leave pay. What about Canada?

Toronto mom Denise Kara says it “feels a bit deflating” returning to work after being on maternity leave for one year.

Before she went on leave, Kara said her career, working as a communications advisor at a Canadian bank was picking up with promotion opportunities on the horizon.

Being away from the workforce, the 32-year-old now finds herself with many question marks about where her career is headed next.

Kara gave birth to her firstborn, a daughter, in January last year.

“Just taking that year off, while it’s great spending time with my little one, I’ve had a really great time, it’s just hard trying to figure out where you fit back in once you re-enter the workforce,” she said in an interview with Global News.

On top of that, the new parents now also have daycare costs and other expenses to think about.

As part of the federal government’s Employment Insurance benefits, Kara was getting paid less than half of her salary during her maternity leave.

“I would say it was only enough because my spouse also works, so if we didn’t have his income in addition, it would be very tough, especially with inflation going up and again, being away for that year, you miss out on opportunities to increase your salary in a very meaningful way,” she said.

In Canada, those on maternity and parental leave get benefits of up to 55 per cent of their salary, with a maximum weekly pay of up to $668.

The birth parent is eligible for maternity leave for the first 15 weeks after the birth of a child. After that it switches to parental leave, with up to 40 weeks that can be shared between both parents.

Parents are also eligible for extended benefits up to 61 weeks for one parent and 69 weeks shared between both. In that case they get up to 33 per cent of