Stronger Support for Working Parents with Enhanced Parental Leave Schemes From 1 April 2025

30 weeks of paid leave in total for parents to spend time with their newborns

As announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the 2024 National Day Rally, the Government will be enhancing paid parental leave to provide parents more time to care for and bond with their babies. This is part of the Government’s effort to provide stronger caregiving support for parents during their child’s infancy stage, when their care needs are the greatest. These enhancements are in response to parents’ feedback on the need for longer parental leave and their desire for greater shared parental responsibility. We have also taken on board inputs from Tripartite Partners.

Eligible working parents with Singapore Citizen (SC) children born on or after 1 April 2025 will benefit from (i) enhancements to the existing Government-Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL), and (ii) a new Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme.

Mandatory four weeks of Government-Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL)

Currently, eligible working fathers are entitled to two weeks of GPPL and may take an additional two weeks of GPPL, if their employers allow them to do so. Employers who grant the additional paternity leave on a voluntary basis will be reimbursed by the Government.

From 1 April 2025, the additional two weeks of voluntary GPPL will be made mandatory. Eligible working fathers with SC children born on or after 1 April 2025 will be entitled to four weeks of GPPL. We encourage fathers to fully utilise their paternity leave to care for their newborns and to support their wives.

New Shared Parental Leave (SPL)

Under the current SPL scheme, a working mother can share up to four weeks of her 16 weeks of Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML) with her husband. The current SPL scheme will cease from 1 April 2025 and be replaced with a new SPL scheme.

The new SPL scheme comprises 10 weeks of paid parental leave, shared between both parents. It will be implemented in two phases from 1 April 2025 to manage the manpower impact on employers, and allow them time to adjust their operational and manpower arrangements:

(i)Phase 1: Eligible working parents of SC children born on or after 1 April 2025 will be entitled to 6 weeks of SPL;

(ii)Phase 2: Eligible working parents of SC children born on or after 1 April 2026 will be entitled to 10 weeks of SPL.

The new SPL scheme is provided on top of GPML and GPPL entitlements. We encourage both parents to tap on the new SPL scheme so that each can play their part in caring for their infant.

The key features of the new SPL scheme are as follows:

(i) The SPL should be consumed within the first 12 months of the child’s birth. Parents and their employers should come to a mutual agreement on the leave arrangement. In the absence of a mutual agreement, parents can take SPL in a continuous block (after GPML or GPPL) within the first 26 weeks of the child’s birth.

(ii) As a default arrangement, the SPL will be equally distributed between the two parents (i.e. three weeks per parent for babies born between 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026, five weeks per parent for babies born from 1 April 2026). Parents have the flexibility to reallocate their SPL to each other, based on the caregiving arrangement that is best suited for their families’ needs. Changes to the leave sharing arrangements should be made within four weeks after the child’s birth. Any changes thereafter will require mutual agreement between parents and their employers.

(iii) All 10 weeks of SPL will be paid by the Government, up to the prevailing cap of $2,500 per week (~$10,000 a month).

Working parents with irregular employment arrangements (e.g. short-term contract workers) can also enjoy parental leave benefits under the new Shared Parental Leave Benefit (SPB) scheme. Eligible parents will be able to claim reimbursement from the Government for time taken off work to care for their infants¹. Parents eligible for SPB will similarly have the flexibility to share the 6-week entitlement with their spouses from 1 April 2025, or 10-week entitlement from 1 April 2026.

A calibrated approach to enhancing support for parents while balancing employers’ needs

The Government had consulted the Tripartite Partners and employers in the design of the leave enhancements, to factor in the needs of both employees and employers and manage the impact on business costs and operations.

To manage the impact on employers, the Government will introduce the parental leave enhancements progressively from 1 April 2025 and implement the new SPL scheme in two phases.

With the parental leave enhancements, parents could be away from the workplace for an extended period of time. To help employers to better adjust their operations, the Government will introduce a new minimum notice period of four weeks which employees will be required to serve before consuming leave under any of the parental leave schemes². Notwithstanding the minimum notice period, parents should exercise responsibility and inform their employers as early as possible when they are expecting a child. This will provide employers with the lead time to make the necessary covering arrangements and operational adjustments.

Specific to the new SPL scheme, changes to the leave sharing arrangements should be made within four weeks from the date of the child’s birth. Thereafter, any changes will be subject to employers’ agreement. This provides employers with early notice of their employees’ leave plans to facilitate covering arrangements.

Employers can tap on existing grants and resources to strengthen HR and manpower planning capabilities and support operational and system adjustments. The Government will continue to work with Tripartite Partners to support employers in implementing the parental leave enhancements.

When the new SPL is fully implemented on 1 April 2026, parents will have a total of 30 weeks of paid leave³ to spend with their infants. In addition to these parental leave enhancements, to better support infant caregiving, the Government is conducting a pilot on infant childminding services, and will also be increasing centre-based infant care places. The Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) Requests will also take effect on 1 Dec 2024. Working parents who need greater flexibility to meet caregiving duties for their children may request for FWAs from their employers. These initiatives are part of our broader suite of measures to better support marriage and parenthood. Together with partners in the workplace and the community, our collective efforts seek to build a Singapore Made For Families.

More details on the marriage and parenthood support measures can be found at www.madeforfamilies.gov.sg ↗ (opens in new tab)

Click here for a list of FAQs ↗ (opens in new tab)

¹ More details on the reimbursement process for the new SPB scheme will be released closer to the implementation date.

² This notice period requirement will apply to GPML, GPPL, new SPL and Adoption Leave.

³ 30 weeks consist of 16 weeks of GPML, 4 weeks of GPPL, and 10 weeks of SPL.