What your wife's company chooses to do will depend, but I can give you the low-down on CA (which my company didn't know either. When I had my first kid, another coworker was pregnant. We were the first two ever. I went back at 13.5 weeks, and she planned to take the full time - 24 weeks - and was at week 20 when the company said "you have to come back at 22!")
So, in a nutshell, for a vaginal delivery, max PROTECTED leave is 22 weeks (assuming company is covered by FMLA and CFRA - certain sized company, and she has to have worked there for a certain amount of time).
Here's what you need to know:
FMLA and CFRA are guaranteed time off and CONCURRENT
PDL (which is time off and disability pay) and CFRA are NOT-CONCURRENT
PFL (paid family leave) is money and not "time off"
What this means: Weeks
-4 to 0: PDL (pregnancy disability leave with 55% pay) AND FMLA
0 to 6: PDL (pregnancy disability leave) AND FMLA
6 to 18: CFRA (concurrent with remaining FMLA). Some of this is partially paid (taxable) by PFL paid family leave.
Total weeks of protected leave = 22 weeks.
Pregnancy disability leave can go longer than 6 weeks after the birth - 8 weeks for a C-section, and maybe longer if something bad happens (had a friend with temp paralysis)
Neither of my companies were overly generous in allowing to stack maternity for after FMLA and CFRA. It's expected that it's concurrent. Company #1 had a maternity benefit, but it was the same as CA state SDI (our HQ was in another state)
Company #2 paid me full pay for 12 weeks ("made up the difference"), meaning I got my full paycheck, but I paid them back for the state SDI/ PDL check.
*MOST LIKELY* what she will get is this:
- 4 to 0: 100% pay, maternity leave, PDL & FMLA (but she won't be allowed to collect PDL)
0 to 6: 100 pay, maternity leave, PDL & FMLA (But she won't be allowed to collect PDL)
6 till 18: FMLA & CFRA - a total of 12 weeks because that's CFRA and it's NON-CONCURRENT with PDL. 6 of which she would get full pay.
Sorry if this isn't much help, but *most* companies aren't going to let you stack like that.
Bottom line: 22 weeks job-protected leave for vaginal delivery, 24 for c-section.