The package of pronatalist incentives implemented soon after the National Day Rally held in August 2004 could be separated into two broad groups. As noted in the previous chapter, the first group consisted of incentives designed to implement some changes to the measures introduced in the past so as to make them stronger and more effective. The second group contained entirely new measures that were quite essential for preventing any further deterioration of the exceedingly low level of fertility prevailing at the time. The formulation of the overall package in terms of financial and non-financial incentives was, in fact, viewed by the government as a “holistic and coherent approach” towards creating a more congenial environment for couples to produce and raise children in Singapore.

CHILDCARE LEAVE

One of the new pronatalist incentives introduced in 2004 was the two days of statutory childcare leave granted to each working parent, provided for by an amendment to the Employment Act passed in Parliament on 21 September 2004. With effect from 1 October 2004, parents were entitled to take two days per year of this statutory employer-paid leave if they had at least a child under seven years of age. In late 2008, the leave was extended to six days, with the first three days paid by the employer and the other three days by the government, capped at S$500 per day. The leave was granted on the basis of per parent and not per child, i.e. each parent could only take two days in a year even if there were more than one child under seven years old in the family. However, parents had full flexibility to use this leave to spend time with their children for whatever purpose since it was not predicated on other conditions such as illness of the child.

As part of the overall package of measures to support parenthood, the childcare leave allowed working parents to take time off to care for their children without any loss of income and to achieve a more harmonious work-life environment.

The childcare leave was also made available to working parents with any stepchildren or legally adopted children below the age of seven. The parents could be married, divorced, or widowed, and they could be regular employees, fixed-term contract workers, or temporary or part-time employees.