New expanded benefits seek to help parents manage work and family commitments
Paternity leave in Singapore will be doubled to four weeks as part of the government's commitment to support parents in their work-life balance, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced Tuesday.
Wong said the government will be reimbursing the costs for the expanded leave entitlement, which employers can offer on a voluntary basis.
"This is also to give more time for employers to adjust, especially taking into account the existing economic conditions and manpower and operational challenges that many employers face," the minister said in his 2023 Budget speech.
Fathers of Singaporean children who are born on or after Jan. 1, 2024, will be able to avail this expanded leave, added the minister.
"With the doubling of paternity leave, I hope the message is clear: we want paternal involvement to be the norm in our society, and we will stand behind all our fathers who want to play a bigger role in raising our children," Wong said in his speech.
While the expanded leave entitlement is offered on a voluntary basis, Wong said the government intends to make it mandatory "in due course."
The expansion comes as "more than half" of fathers in Singapore now take paternity leave, according to Wong – much higher when compared to when the leave entitlement was introduced a decade ago.
Unpaid Infant Care Leave also expanded
Wong also announced that the government will double Unpaid Infant Care Leave for the child's first two years from the current six days to 12 days per year.
"This will give parents more time to bond with and care for their newborn, or to settle caregiving arrangements," Wong said.
Employees will be able to avail the expanded leave entitlement if they worked for their employers for a continuous period of at least three months.
"And this, too, will apply from 1 January 2024 onwards for eligible working parents with Singaporean children aged under two years old," Wong said.
The newly expanded leave entitlements will allow working couples to avail a total of up to 26 weeks in their child's first year.
Offering flexibility
Wong also said the government plans to implement the Tripartite Standard of Flexi-Work Arrangements by next year to further help parents manage their work and family commitments.
Its implementation means employers will be required to consider staff requests for such flexi-work arrangements fairly and properly, according to Wong.
The Singapore government has been encouraging employers to voluntarily adopt the tripartite guidelines and to make these arrangements "more pervasive."
In 2022, a white paper on women's development in Singapore submitted to Parliament a recommendation to introduce a new set of tripartite guidelines to require employers to consider flexible work arrangement requests by 2024.
