Netizens welcome up to 30 weeks of parental leave for new couples in NDR speech

In his first National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced two major shifts in policy to support parents with newborns

He highlighted the need for a shift in gender norms around parenting, towards both mothers and fathers sharing caregiving responsibilities equally

Currently, mothers get up to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, while fathers only get up to 4 weeks, two of which are granted on a voluntary basis by the employer

This will change from April 2025, when all 4 weeks of paid paternity leave will be made mandatory, meaning employers must provide it if fathers apply for it

There will also be a new shared parental leave scheme allowing parents to share 10 weeks of additional paid leave by April 2026

It will be rolled out in two phases, starting with 6 weeks granted in the first phase from April 2025, and the full 10 weeks from April 2026

While the leave will be distributed equally between the parents by default, they can reallocate it to suit their caregiving needs

This means that parents will get a total of 30 weeks of paid leave between them starting from April 2026, which can be divided almost equally between father and mother

These new measures are aimed at creating a more family-friendly environment in Singapore to address the declining fertility rate, which fell to a record low of 0.97 in 2023

The changes have largely been hailed online as a big step forward, though some netizens feel that it is not enough, and called for an increase in childcare leave as well

Right now, each eligible working parent of Singaporean children under the age of 7 is entitled to 6 days of paid childcare leave per year, and only 2 days per year when the child is between 7 and 12 years old

However, PM Wong did not announce changes to this policy, which netizens say is crucial to support parents through the later stages of child-rearing