Commentary: NDR 2026 - non-parents shouldn’t be default substitutes for parents on childcare leave

SINGAPORE: More childcare leave was one of the most significant announcements at this year's National Day Rally: eight days a year for each working parent with one Singaporean child aged 12 and below, rising to 10 and 12 days for those with two and three or more children, with the government reimbursing employers up to the existing cap.This is an increase from the current six days if the youngest child is aged six and below, and two days if the youngest child is aged seven to 12.For parents, the additional leave translates directly into more time to respond to their children's needs. The harder question is how workplaces adjust when parents actually use it.Colleagues may have to urgently cover for them. Managers may have to reassign work at short notice. Deadlines may move. How disruptive this becomes depends on how easily teams can shift work when someone is unexpectedly away.WHAT’S THE COST OF AN ABSENCE?A Danish study published in the Journal of Labor Economics in 2024 found that among small firms, an employee who gives birth goes on leave for 9.5 months on average. Despite this, there are no measurable effects on firm output, profits or survival. While remaining employees work more hours, they also see increases in their earnings and are more likely to remain employed.Certainly, the Danish setting differs from Singapore's, and the study focuses on parental leave rather than childcare leave. But the underlying question for employers is the same: How easily can the missing worker's tasks be reassigned?The key is substitutability. Absences are easier to absorb when work can be reallocated to someone able to perform it.BUILDING CAPACITY TO HANDLE UNEXPECTED ABSENCESThe need to take childcare leave can arise overnight. The absence may last only a day or two, but employers have much less time to respond.In contrast, parental leave around childbirth can be anticipated. Employers may know months in advance that an employee will be away, giving them time to prepare a handover, reorganise responsibilities or hire temporary help.Temporary hiring is much less practical when it comes to childcare leave.More of the adjustment can come from capacity already inside the organisation. This can be built with cross-training. Managers should also ensure that there are clear handovers, shared documentation and that critical functions do not depend entirely on one employee.Some overlap in skills may appear costly, but it becomes valuable when somebody is away. The same capacity also helps firms manage illness and other unexpected absences.Employers must also carefully allocate who picks up the slack. If the same employee repeatedly stays late whenever a colleague takes childcare leave, the arrangement can quickly feel unfair regardless of who is paying for it.Government reimbursement for childcare leave addresses the direct financial cost to employers. It does not determine who covers an urgent task that afternoon or whether the same person keeps absorbing it. Those are questions of work design and management practice.This is especially important for employees without children. Greater support for parents should not result in non-parents becoming the default source of coverage.Employers can reduce friction by rotating emergency coverage where possible, making expectations transparent and recognising the extra work when it falls disproportionately on particular employees.EXPECTATIONS MAY EXTEND BEYOND CHILDCARE LEAVEThe policy may also change what employees expect from their workplaces. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said employers should support parents so that becoming one does not become a career disadvantage.Yet having an entitlement and feeling able to use it are different things. Parents may hesitate if they expect taking leave to burden colleagues or affect how managers view their commitment.If childcare leave becomes easier to use in practice, employees may update their expectations about what workplaces should accommodate more broadly. A worker caring for an ageing parent may need flexibility. Parents of older children still face unexpected caregiving demands.This does not require a new leave category for every circumstance. It does mean employers have more decisions to make about how much flexibility to provide without repeatedly shifting extra work onto others.Employers form expectations too. If they expect parents to be difficult to accommodate, that belief can shape hiring, promotion or task assignment. While government reimbursement reduces the direct cost of expanded childcare leave, better work design reduces the operational hurdles.If firms build greater substitutability into teams and managers distribute coverage fairly, parents can use childcare leave with less concern about burdening colleagues or hurting their careers. This sends a signal to other employees too: that taking time off for caregiving responsibilities need not impose an unfair burden on any one colleague.Expanded childcare leave can therefore do more than add days off. Paired with better work design, it can shift how workplaces accommodate caregiving more broadly, making short, unexpected absences easier for everyone to manage.Chua Yeow Hwee is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is also the Deputy Director of the Economic Growth Centre at NTU. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not represent the views and opinions of the institutions that he is in.