Virginia adopts modest maternity benefits for employees

Although many jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and Maryland, have taken steps to mandate employers to provide paid leave, including maternity leave, Virginia has adopted a more modest approach with respect to paid leave following childbirth.

What is required

Virginia’s approach focuses on insurance companies and requires that their short-term disability (STD) policies include provisions for maternity leave coverage. Thus, for Virginia employers that choose to provide STD coverage, it now will include disability coverage that arises out of childbirth. More specifically, STD policies that were delivered or issued for delivery in the Commonwealth by an insurer on or after July 1, 2021, must provide a maternity benefit of at least 12 weeks following childbirth.

Not every employee who gives birth, however, will be entitled to the STD maternity benefit. That’s because the employee must meet the current definition of disability outlined in the employer’s STD plan. Additionally, some pre-existing condition limitations of the STD plan may apply to the new maternity benefit. For example, when an employee is within the pre-existing condition limitation of the employer’s STD plan, the maternity benefit won’t be available. An STD plan’s elimination period cannot be used, however, to reduce the mandatory 12-week maternity benefit.

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