Debated in Parliament on 14 Jan 2026.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim asked the Minister for Manpower whether the ongoing review of the Employment Act will specifically consider increasing the statutory minimum starting annual leave entitlement of seven days to a norm closer to the OECD average of 20 days, instead of benchmarking to Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are on the lower end of the global distribution.
The Employment Act stipulates that employees are entitled to a statutory minimum of seven days of annual leave in their first year of service. With each year of service, an employee's statutory annual leave entitlement increases by one day, up to an entitlement of 14 days.
As mentioned in an earlier reply to a Parliamentary Question on 6 November 2025, the majority of resident employees already receive more annual leave days than statutorily required. In 2024, over 90% of full-time resident employees aged 25 to 64 were entitled to more than seven days of annual leave and 68.2% were entitled to more than 14 days of annual leave.
Annual leave entitlements can be supplemented by other entitlements and practices that support employees in balancing their work and personal needs, such as parental and childcare leave. We also take reference from the practices of other economies within our region. This allows us to support workers while enabling businesses to continue generating good job prospects for Singaporeans.
The tripartite partners will review our employment provisions holistically based on what works best for Singapore's context.
PAPERCUTS