Additional 10 weeks of Shared Parental Leave adds up to 30 weeks in total for parents
To help new parents spend more time with their babies, the Government is giving them additional weeks of parental leave to be shared between both parents.
The new Shared Parental Leave will be 10 weeks from April 2026 and paid for by the Government.
Source: Omar Lopez on Unsplash
Parents have asked for more parental leave: PM Wong
The move was announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the National Day Rally (NDR) on Sunday (18 Aug).
He noted that many parents “would like to spend even more time with their children, especially when they are infants”, with some asking for more parental leave.
Source: Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore on YouTube
However, employers and businesses are concerned about manpower issues when their employees are gone for a long time.
Current sharing of maternity leave ‘not so ideal’
Currently, fathers have four weeks’ paternity leave and mothers have 16 weeks’ maternity leave.
Husbands may also share up to four weeks of their wife’s maternity leave — meaning she would have less.
However, “that is not so ideal”, Mr Wong said.
Having studied the matter carefully, he added,
I think we can further enhance our leave schemes.
Shared Parental Leave to be rolled out in two steps
Thus, the Government will provide parents with additional weeks of shared leave, on top of the paternity/maternity leave they now have.
It will be rolled out in two steps to allow employers some time to adjust to it.
For babies born from 1 April 2025, parents will get six extra weeks. Parents of babies born from 1 April 2026 will get 10 extra weeks.
Source: Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore on YouTube
That adds up to a total of 30 weeks, or about 7.5 months of paid leave for parents.
“The additional 10 weeks will be paid for by the Government,” Mr Wong said, adding that the Shared Parental Leave may be taken by either fathers or mothers.
4 weeks paternity leave to be mandatory
On 1 Jan this year, Government-paid paternity leave was doubled to four weeks, Mr Wong noted.
However, employers were left to offer the additional two weeks on a voluntary basis.
Source: Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore on YouTube
From 1 April 2025, this will be mandatory — meaning “if fathers apply for leave, employers must agree”, Mr Wong said.
This comes after he noted that almost half of Singapore’s fathers do not take their paternity leave.
New scheme for large families on the way
Mr Wong also acknowledged that married couples with children who would like bigger families may worry about the additional costs.
To that, he said understood the concerns, so a “new scheme for large families” will be introduced.
This initiative will provide more support for those thinking about having a third child and more help to parents who have three or more young children.
As the details are still being worked out, the PM hoped to share more details next year during the Budget.
PM hopes to reassure young couples
Mr Wong hoped the moves would “go some way” into reassuring young couples to “embrace (their) marriage and parenthood journey”.
The Government wants to create a more family-friendly environment in Singapore, hopefully motivating more Singaporeans to translate their aspirations of marriage and children into reality, he said, adding,
We are building a Singapore made for families; and we will help you keep a good balance between your working and parenting responsibilities.
Also read: More babies this year? We have a long, long way to go
Opinion: More dragon babies this year? We have a long, long way to go
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Featured image adapted from Omar Lopez on Unsplash.
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