Parental leave will be upgraded from 20 weeks of paid leave to 30 weeks between a couple in two phases from April 1, 2025, in the latest set of support measures for working parents announced at the National Day Rally on Aug 18.

How do a mother’s benefits differ from a father’s? How many more weeks of paid leave does a father stand to get? Do employers have to fork out more for the additional parental leave entitlements? And how do the updated parental leave provisions compare with those of other countries? The Straits Times has the answers.

Q: How significant are the latest round of changes?

A: Rather significant. The shared parental leave scheme has been overhauled such that the number of weeks shared between mother and father no longer eats into the mother’s maternity leave quota, as is currently the case.

Under the current shared parental leave scheme, a working mother will have to give up a maximum of four out of 16 weeks of maternity leave available, if she wants her husband to get more involved.

When the new scheme kicks in from April 1, 2025, mothers will no longer need to make this sacrifice, while fathers who take this shared leave will not have to feel bad that they are eating into the precious time allotted to their wife.

This is because parents will be entitled to six weeks of shared leave from April 1, 2025, and 10 weeks of shared leave from April 1, 2026.

The 10 extra weeks of shared parental leave will grant parents 50 per cent more parental leave days than they now have.

Another change is that two out of the four weeks of a father’s paternity leave entitlement will no longer be voluntary from April 1, 2025. This means employers will be mandated to grant a total of four weeks of government-paid paternity leave, up from two currently.

Q: What is the long and short for a dual-income couple looking to have a baby?

A: Mothers can go on their full 16 weeks’ paid maternity leave.

Fathers will be entitled to four weeks of paid paternity leave.

On top of these, the couple can share between them 10 extra weeks of paid parental leave. 

The 10 weeks of shared parental leave will, by default, be equally distributed between the two parents.

Fathers and mothers can take their shared parental leave at the same time, although they must use their maternity and paternity leave before tapping the shared parental leave.

These existing requirements still apply: The child must be a Singapore citizen. Fathers who wish to take paternity leave must be lawfully married to the mother of the child. All leave must also be consumed within the first 12 months of the child’s birth.

“Working parents” are defined as those who have served their employer for a continuous period of at least three months before their child’s birth. Self-employed individuals are also counted, as long as they were engaged in work for at least three continuous months before the child is born.

Q: What if one parent wishes to take all 10 weeks of shared parental leave? Is that possible?

A: Yes. Parents are given full flexibility to reallocate their shared parental leave on their own, based on the caregiving arrangement best suited to their families’ needs.

Just make sure that changes to the leave-sharing arrangements are made within four weeks after the child’s birth, so employers get enough heads-up to make the necessary covering arrangements in time. Head to the LifeSG website or mobile application to get this done.

Any changes thereafter will require mutual agreement between parents and their employers. Employers have the discretion to not grant leave requested without sufficient notice, said the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) of the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Q: Must I use up all my shared parental leave in one shot? Can I take it in chunks?

A: It is possible, but the onus is on you to strike an agreement with your employer on your leave arrangement.

In the absence of a mutual agreement, parents are to take their shared parental leave in one block within the first 26 weeks of the child’s birth.

Q: I am currently pregnant. Will my husband and I qualify for more parental leave?

A: Yes, as long as your estimated date of delivery (EDD) is on or after April 1, 2025. It does not matter if your child is eventually born before April 1, 2025. You will still qualify for enhancements.

But since the changes will be rolled out in a phased manner to give employers time to adjust their operations and manpower planning systems, between you and your husband, you will get only six weeks of shared parental leave, instead of the full 10 weeks. In this case, the default is three weeks per parent.

The full 10 weeks will be given to parents of babies with EDDs on or after April 1, 2026.

Q: I am a single mother. Do I get the enhanced leave provisions as well?

A: Yes. This means you can get up to a total of 26 weeks away from work – 16 weeks of maternity leave, plus 10 weeks of shared parental leave.

Q: I am an employer. Who pays for the employee’s absence from work?

A: The pay associated with the four weeks of mandatory paternity leave and 10 weeks of shared parental leave is fully borne by the Government, so the latest set of changes is not expected to drive up business costs.

As for maternity leave, the status quo remains: For mothers expecting their first or second child, the first eight weeks will be paid by the employer, while the rest is paid by the Government. The Government pays all 16 weeks from the mother’s third child onwards.

The Government’s weekly payout is capped at $2,500, or up to about $10,000 a month. There is no change to this. If an employee earns above $10,000 a month, you can consider topping up the difference, but this is not mandatory.

At steady state, when all 10 weeks of the new shared parental leave scheme is fully implemented from April 2026, the scheme will cost the Government around $400 million a year, an NPTD spokeswoman said.

Q: Why is the Government doing this?

A: The Singaporean population is declining fast, with its total fertility rate reaching a historic low of 0.97 children per woman in 2023. This is lower than Japan’s 1.2 and Sweden’s 1.45, although it is higher than South Korea’s 0.72.

Yet, Singapore’s parental leave provisions are still significantly shorter than those seen in other countries. 

In other developed countries, parents tend to have periods of leave that cover at least one year, usually shared between both parents to encourage shared parental responsibility.

This includes Japan, which allows up to a year of paid time off, although the longer such leave is taken, the lower the proportion of pay covered. In contrast, the parental leave in Singapore is fully paid up for the most part, unless the parent’s pay exceeds the reimbursement cap.

South Korea recently extended parental leave entitlement to up to one year and six months, from one year previously.

Also, the changes are to address poor utilisation rates of the current shared parental leave, which will have to eat into a mother’s maternity leave, and the additional two weeks of government-paid paternity leave, which employers can grant on a voluntary basis.

According to the NPTD spokeswoman, only 6 per cent of fathers use the current shared parental leave. Some 53 per cent of fathers use the mandatory two weeks of paternity leave entitled to them, while 74 per cent of mothers take up maternity leave.

The spokeswoman said the take-up rate for the additional two weeks of paternity leave is not yet available, as it was implemented on a voluntary basis from January 2024. Fathers have up to one year after their child’s birth to use the leave, and employers have three months after that to submit claims.

Read more: Key announcements from PM Wong’s first National Day Rally

Watch PM Wong’s National Day Rally speech here: