Some thoughts on paternity leave, maternity leave and work-life balance
I am a big promoter of a healthy balance between work and life. In my opinion our lives are too skewed towards work and not enough time is spent on other pursuits, such as family and other leisure activities/interests. This is the case in most parts of the world and Singapore certainly has a long way to go, in order attain a better balance.
Recently I have come across several articles and news items discussing a recommendation by AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research), to make paternity leave in Singapore mandatory, to support gender equality and improve Singapore’s birth rate. Currently Singapore offers 4 months maternity leave for mothers and no paternity leave for fathers.
AWARE called for five policy changes to paternity leave and maternity leave in Singapore:
- Make paid paternity leave of two weeks mandatory, with the cost shared between the employer and the state
- Convert the 4th month of maternity leave into ‘parental leave’ to be taken by either parent, with the state sharing the cost with the employer when the father takes this leave
- Offer a ‘parenting present’ of $4,000 to couples where the father takes the 4th month of parental leave
- Convert the currently mandated 6 days of paid childcare leave into dependent’s leave, with ‘dependents’ including older children and parents
- Extend to unwed parents the same parenting leave benefits enjoyed by married parents.
In making the call for these policy changes, and particularly for paid paternity leave to be mandated by law, AWARE found support in the views expressed by 1,001 working parents in a recent survey commissioned by AWARE and conducted by students of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. When asked whether they thought paternity leave should be made compulsory, 91% said yes. Of these, 93% explained that paternity leave would allow fathers to be more involved in parenting. Half of the parents said their employers offered paid paternity leave, and of these the bulk – 59% – get between one and three days of such leave. Of the fathers who have a paternity leave option three quarters took the leave. A significant number of the parents – 57% – said they would welcome having the option of transferring parenting leave from mother to father.
While I certainly think this is a step in the right direction, there are some questions/thoughts that come to mind:
- One of the goals for proposing these measures is to increase Singapore’s birth rate. I’m not sure if offering benefits such as extra time only during initial stages of birth/raising and the SGD 4,000 ‘present’ are enough of an incentive. What about after that? Raising another child is a significant effort and expense for many years to come
- With people leading such busy lives these days and many dual-income families, taking good care of one child is hard enough. Parents ideally want to take care of their children themselves and minimise the use of nannies/day-care. This is just about manageable with one child but I don’t think it is possible with more
- In order to encourage people to have more children and promote more gender equality, there need to be a number of policies/practices in place to support parents and provide them with the flexibility needed to raise their children well. That is very hard to do, since money is at stake and by working less or in a more flexible way, money could be lost for employers. For this a big shift in mindset is needed and people/employers need to place enough importance on family (and other non-work parts of life), to be able to sacrifice some money for family/personal life
- Having said that better work-life balance is not all bad from an employer’s point of view. There are several studies which indicate that better work-life balance can lead to happier, more productive and more loyal employees. So all-in-all it might not be a losing proposition for employers
For more information on the topic have a look at these websites - AWARE, Straits Times. The comments from readers are especially interesting and provide a feel of what people in Singapore are thinking/facing.
Sources and references: AWARE, Straits Times; Topics: Maternal Leave, Paternal Leave, Paternity Leave, Work-life Balance
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