Paternity Leave Taken in Each of Past Five Years

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Social and Family Development for each year in the past five years (a) what is the median number of days of paternity leave taken by fathers; and (b) what is the median number of days of shared parental leave taken by fathers.

The median number of days of Government Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL) and Shared Parental Leave (SPL) taken by fathers who took at least one day of GPPL or SPL in the last five years is shown in Table 1 below.

In 2013, we introduced one week of GPPL and one week of SPL. To better support families, in 2015 the Government encouraged companies to offer eligible fathers a second week of GPPL. In 2017, it was made mandatory for companies to offer the second week of GPPL. SPL was also increased from one to four weeks.