In Singapore, qualifying employees receive at least seven paid annual-leave days in their first service year, increasing by one day per service year to fourteen days from the eighth year. Paid sick leave can reach fourteen outpatient days or sixty total hospitalisation-leave days after six months of service. The sixty-day hospitalisation entitlement includes the outpatient days; it is not sixty plus fourteen. Childcare, maternity, paternity and shared parental leave are separate schemes with different eligibility and date rules.
If you searched for Singapore annual leave entitlement, MC sick leave, 14 days medical leave, hospitalisation leave 60 days, probation leave, childcare leave Singapore, paternity leave 2026 or shared parental leave, start by separating five facts: what kind of leave it is, whether the employee is covered by the applicable law, how long they have worked, which family criteria apply, and the date the relevant event occurred.
Quick answer: Three months of service usually activates the Employment Act’s paid annual and sick-leave entitlement for covered employees, with leave or sick days prorated where relevant. Qualifying Singapore Citizen children born from 1 April 2026 can give eligible parents ten weeks of additional shared parental leave, subject to the scheme’s conditions. Read your employment contract as well as MOM’s official rules: employers may provide benefits above minimums, but cannot normally contract below statutory protection.
Singapore leave entitlement in one table
| Leave type | Common statutory entitlement | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Annual leave | 7 days in service year one, rising to 14 from year eight | Employment Act coverage and at least 3 months’ service |
| Outpatient sick leave | Up to 14 days after 6 months | MC, 48-hour notice and qualifying service |
| Hospitalisation leave | Up to 60 days total after 6 months | Includes the outpatient sick leave within the same total |
| Childcare leave | Up to 6 days annually for qualifying parents of Singapore Citizen child below 7 | Different 2-day rule for some non-citizen children |
| Paternity leave | 4 weeks for eligible fathers under current rules | Child’s citizenship, service and family conditions |
| Shared parental leave | 10 weeks shared for eligible births from 1 April 2026 | Separate benefit, not ten weeks per parent |
| Maternity leave | 16 weeks or 12 weeks, depending on statutory route | Child citizenship and other qualifying conditions |
| Unpaid infant care leave | 12 unpaid days for each eligible parent of child below 2 | Child’s citizenship and employment criteria |
51 Singapore employment and leave vocabulary terms
Read the meaning and the example together. A term like ‘paid hospitalisation leave’ only becomes useful when you know that actual inpatient admission is not the sole qualifying situation and that its days overlap with the outpatient cap.
| Term | Plain-English meaning | Why the term matters |
|---|---|---|
| Employment Act | Singapore law providing core employment protections | Employee coverage determines which statutory leave rules apply. |
| Employee | Person employed under a contract of service | Different from every self-employed freelancer. |
| Employer | Person or business hiring an employee | Responsible for relevant leave, salary and record duties. |
| Contract of service | Employment relationship | Not identical to a contract for independent services. |
| Service period | Time worked for the same employer | Three-month and six-month thresholds can affect leave entitlement. |
| Annual leave | Paid time off under the applicable rules | Minimum days increase with completed service years. |
| Statutory minimum | Lowest leave benefit required by law | An employer may offer more generous contract benefits. |
| Contractual leave | Leave granted under employment agreement | May exceed the Employment Act minimum. |
| Leave year | Period used for annual leave calculations | May be a service-year basis rather than always calendar-year. |
| Prorated leave | Fraction of annual entitlement based on completed months | Different from a full year’s days. |
| Probation | Initial employment assessment period | Does not eliminate statutory entitlement once qualifying conditions are met. |
| Completed month | Full month of qualifying service | Partial months are treated differently under calculation rules. |
| Carry-forward | Using unused leave in a later period | Depends on law and company terms, not universally automatic. |
| Encashment | Payment instead of using accrued leave | Different from taking leave while still employed. |
| Notice period | Time between resignation or termination and exit | Can affect leave accrual and use. |
| Offset notice | Using leave under agreement to move last employment day earlier | Not identical to taking annual leave during notice. |
| Paid sick leave | Eligible absence supported by medical certification | Includes outpatient and hospitalisation categories under the Act. |
| MC | Medical certificate | Proof a registered medical or dental practitioner certified unfitness for work. |
| Outpatient sick leave | Paid leave for eligible illness without hospitalisation | Full annual entitlement generally up to 14 days. |
| Hospitalisation leave | Eligible leave where hospital care or qualifying rest is required | Full annual total is up to 60 days including outpatient days. |
| Combined cap | Shared upper limit for related entitlements | 60 days hospitalisation leave includes the 14 outpatient days. |
| Medical consultation fee | Cost of the eligible visit | Reimbursement rules differ from paid-leave entitlement. |
| Recognised practitioner | Medical or dental professional satisfying MOM requirements | Validity of MC and consultation-fee rule are not identical. |
| Company-appointed doctor | Doctor designated by employer | Relevant to statutory reimbursement conditions. |
| Public medical institution | Eligible public/community hospital or other listed centre | Can affect reimbursement requirements. |
| Notification duty | Obligation to inform or try informing employer | For paid sick leave, usually within 48 hours of absence. |
| Medical confidentiality | Protection of personal health information | A valid MC is not a licence to share all medical details publicly. |
| Gross rate of pay | Statutory salary basis including prescribed components | Separate from some allowances and overtime. |
| Shift allowance | Payment linked to shift work | May be excluded from outpatient sick-leave salary. |
| Unpaid leave | Approved absence without salary | Can affect leave calculations. |
| Public holiday | Statutory holiday with separate rights | Different from paid annual leave or MC day. |
| Rest day | Employee’s weekly rest entitlement | Not automatically a paid sick leave day. |
| Non-working day | Day outside employee’s normal work schedule | Different treatment from a scheduled workday. |
| Childcare leave | Paid leave for qualifying parents of young children | Age and citizenship conditions affect number of days. |
| Extended childcare leave | Additional age-based entitlement under specific conditions | For certain Singapore Citizen children aged 7–12. |
| Infant care leave | Unpaid leave for qualifying parents with children below two | Current entitlement is up to 12 days per parent per year. |
| GPCL | Government-Paid Childcare Leave | Relevant six-day arrangement for eligible parents. |
| GPML | Government-Paid Maternity Leave | Generally 16 weeks for qualifying births involving Singapore Citizen child. |
| Maternity leave | Protected leave for eligible working mothers | 16- or 12-week routes have different conditions. |
| GPPL | Government-Paid Paternity Leave | Four weeks for eligible fathers under present birth-date rules. |
| SPL | Shared Parental Leave | Separate additional leave shared between eligible parents. |
| Qualifying child | Child satisfying relevant scheme rules | Citizenship and date of birth are material. |
| Childbirth date | Actual date of the child’s birth | Determines which parental-leave version applies. |
| Formal intent to adopt | Officially defined adoption milestone | Relevant to adoption-related leave. |
| Employment duration | Continuous period with employer | Common three-month eligibility test. |
| Government reimbursement | Employer recovers eligible paid-leave cost | Not necessarily cash given directly to every parent. |
| Leave notice | Advance information given to employer | Some government-paid leave requires four weeks’ notice. |
| Leave approval | Employer’s response to a proposed absence | Not proof a statutory entitlement disappeared. |
| Dispute resolution | Process for resolving contested entitlement | Use MOM/TADM channels depending on claim. |
| TADM | Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management | Formal route for eligible employment claims and mediation. |
| Employment record | Payslip and leave account history | Useful evidence when calculating or disputing benefits. |
| Medical absence | Time away due to certified illness | Should not be casually labelled unpaid or discretionary leave. |
Annual leave after three months: how the minimum grows
| Completed year of service | Minimum annual leave days |
|---|---|
| First | 7 |
| Second | 8 |
| Third | 9 |
| Fourth | 10 |
| Fifth | 11 |
| Sixth | 12 |
| Seventh | 13 |
| Eighth and beyond | 14 |
The service year is counted from the employee’s employment start date under MOM’s framework, not necessarily from 1 January. A business that gives its employees fourteen days from day one is offering a more generous benefit than the statutory first-year minimum. A new employee under probation is not excluded from the minimum simply because a probation review is pending. Once the three-month qualifying service threshold has been met, statutory leave and pro-rating rules apply.
How prorated annual leave works
MOM calculates prorated annual leave using completed months of service divided by twelve, multiplied by the annual entitlement. If the fraction of a leave day is less than half, it is rounded down; if half or more, rounded up. Imagine a fictional eligible worker with eight days’ annual entitlement who completes six months of service in the applicable leave year. Six divided by twelve times eight gives four days. This is a calculation illustration, not a personal record.
If an employee takes unpaid leave, the period can affect the number of completed months used for annual leave. During resignation notice, the notice period is normally counted in the service used for pro-rating. This is why the words completed month, service year and last day of employment need to be checked separately.
Taking annual leave during notice is not the same as offsetting notice
MOM distinguishes taking approved annual leave while serving notice from using leave to offset part of the notice period by mutual agreement. If annual leave is taken during notice, the employment end date usually stays the same. If the employee and employer agree to offset the notice, the last employment day moves earlier and leave used for the offset is not separately paid. An employee should never assume that simply holding ten unused days means they can unilaterally stop working ten days earlier.
Where employment is terminated other than for misconduct, MOM says the employer generally must pay qualifying unused annual leave at the relevant gross rate of pay. A termination for misconduct can have different treatment. Keep the approved leave record, employment contract and final salary statement; the word ‘encashment’ describes payment for a leave balance, not the same as childcare leave, which has separate restrictions on conversion to cash.
Sick leave: what counts as an MC and what is reimbursed?
An employee covered by the Employment Act with at least three months of service is entitled to eligible paid sick leave after a medical practitioner registered under Singapore’s relevant medical or dental registration laws certifies them unfit for work, provided the employee informs or tries to inform the employer within forty-eight hours of the absence. The employee may notify as early as possible according to company policy, but the statutory condition should not be mistaken for permission to ignore reasonable workplace communication.
Paid consultation-fee reimbursement has an additional requirement: MOM says the employer must pay the medical consultation fee in the relevant situation where at least one day of paid sick leave results from an MC issued by a doctor at a public medical institution or one appointed by the company. A valid sick-leave MC from another registered practitioner and an entitlement to claim that practitioner’s consultation fee are not necessarily the same thing. Some contracts offer more generous medical coverage.
Outpatient sick leave versus hospitalisation leave: the actual table
| Completed service | Paid outpatient sick leave | Paid hospitalisation leave (combined total) |
|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 5 days | 15 days |
| 4 months | 8 days | 30 days |
| 5 months | 11 days | 45 days |
| 6 months or more | 14 days | 60 days |
The correct interpretation of a 60-day hospitalisation-leave entitlement is not ‘sixty days in addition to fourteen outpatient days’. It is the maximum combined entitlement. A hospital doctor can certify qualifying hospitalisation leave for certain periods of rest or treatment even when an employee is not continuously warded as an inpatient. MOM also recognises certain statutory quarantine arrangements. Check the medical certificate’s classification and any genuine medical restrictions; do not try to classify a condition from its name alone.
A fictional example: the employee uses outpatient days first
An eligible employee with the full entitlement uses eight outpatient MC days earlier in the year. If they later require hospitalisation leave, the combined 60-day entitlement must account for those eight days according to the relevant rules. It would be misleading to promise an additional sixty days without checking the already-used outpatient leave. The actual payable duration also depends on medical certification and employment circumstances.
Medical leave on a public holiday, rest day or annual leave
MOM explains that paid sick leave under the Act is not claimed for days that are already public holidays, rest days or non-working days. Medical consultation reimbursement under the statutory sick-leave rule may similarly differ for an illness occurring only on such a day. A person should ask payroll which category applies instead of counting every calendar day covered by an illness as a payable sick-leave day.
Hospitalisation leave can involve continuous medical care and different medical certification; the actual treatment should be assessed under the relevant rule rather than by a generic calendar calculation. When a public holiday falls during maternity leave taken as a continuous block, parental leave has its own treatment. Similar-sounding terms require different schedules.
Childcare leave: Singapore Citizen child versus non-citizen child
Under MOM’s current rules, eligible parents of a Singapore Citizen child below seven generally have six days of paid childcare leave per parent each year. Eligible parents of a non-citizen child below seven may have two days under the Employment Act. For a qualifying Singapore Citizen child aged seven to twelve, two days of extended childcare leave may apply. Parents with children in both groups do not simply add six plus two to obtain eight days of paid childcare leave.
The parent usually needs three continuous months of qualifying employment or self-employment under the relevant scheme. Six days of childcare leave normally cannot be carried forward to a new leave year, transferred to a spouse or encashed. These restrictions are why childcare leave should not be counted as ordinary annual leave.
Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave in 2026
| Scheme | Typical eligibility-based amount | Timing and distinction |
|---|---|---|
| Government-Paid Maternity Leave | 16 weeks for qualifying mother of Singapore Citizen child | Separate from shared parental leave |
| Employment Act maternity leave | 12 weeks under alternative route | May include a portion not paid under statutory requirements |
| Government-Paid Paternity Leave | 4 weeks for qualifying fathers of children born from 1 April 2025 | Employer payment and government reimbursement rules apply |
| Shared Parental Leave | 10 weeks for eligible children born from 1 April 2026 | Pool shared between parents; not 10 each |
| Unpaid Infant Care Leave | 12 unpaid days per eligible parent each year | For qualifying Singapore Citizen child below two |
A child born on 31 March 2026 falls into the previous shared parental leave period, which provided six weeks for qualifying parents, whereas a child born on 1 April 2026 or later is covered by the newer ten-week arrangement. One day changes the applicable statutory scheme. This is an example of why the words effective date, birth date and estimated delivery date must not be treated as irrelevant details.
Shared does not mean each parent receives ten weeks
The ten weeks belong to a pool to be divided between eligible parents under the default allocation or an accepted sharing arrangement. For example, if two eligible parents agree to divide ten weeks equally, that is five weeks each, not twenty weeks total. MOM’s shared parental leave rules also require, in most circumstances, four weeks’ advance notice and specify when continuous or flexible leave must be used. A proposed plan should be confirmed with the employer and the Government-Paid Leave portal.
Paternity and maternity do not have identical eligibility
Qualifying fathers under Government-Paid Paternity Leave generally receive four weeks for births from 1 April 2025, subject to the child’s Singapore citizenship, marriage and qualifying work period. Government-Paid Maternity Leave generally provides sixteen weeks for qualifying mothers of Singapore Citizen children, and a separate twelve-week statutory route applies to other qualifying cases. The leave weeks, payment responsibility and notice requirements differ; a single universal ‘new parent leave entitlement’ figure is not accurate.
Five misunderstandings that affect leave planning
| Claim | More accurate reading |
|---|---|
| Everyone gets fourteen annual leave days immediately. | Employment Act minimum starts at seven in the first service year, increasing to fourteen by year eight. |
| During probation I can never qualify for annual leave. | Statutory eligibility after three months still applies to covered employees. |
| Hospitalisation leave equals fourteen plus sixty. | The sixty days includes outpatient sick leave days. |
| Every MC requires the employer to reimburse any private consultation fee. | MC validity and fee reimbursement are different conditions. |
| Each parent gets ten shared parental leave weeks. | Ten weeks are shared between eligible parents for births from April 2026. |
| Six childcare days can always be paid as cash. | Statutory childcare leave cannot be encashed under the scheme. |
| Annual leave automatically offsets notice. | An agreed notice offset is different from approved leave during the notice. |
| A manager can convert a medical absence into annual leave without checking the law. | Relevant MC, eligibility and statutory entitlements must be considered. |
How employees and employers should document leave
- Identify the exact leave category. Do not combine sick leave, annual leave, childbirth leave and public holidays under one ‘absence’ label.
- Check legal coverage and service. Read the Employment Act terms and the employee’s start date.
- Record eligibility facts. For parental benefits, child citizenship and birth/adoption dates may determine the scheme.
- Keep proof. Maintain MCs, relevant approvals, leave applications, salary documents and employer notices.
- Separate pay from leave days. Consultation-fee reimbursement, full paid leave and unpaid leave are different questions.
- Apply in time. Follow the relevant notice and claim requirements, especially Government-Paid Leave.
- Use official help if disputed. Look up MOM or the appropriate employment-claims route before relying on anonymous advice.
Frequently searched Singapore leave questions
How many annual leave days am I entitled to in Singapore?
For covered employees with the qualifying service period, the Employment Act minimum starts at seven days in the first year and increases annually to fourteen days from the eighth year.
Am I entitled to paid annual leave during probation?
If you are a covered employee and complete three months of service, statutory pro-rated annual leave can apply even if probation continues.
How many MC days can I take?
The paid outpatient sick leave entitlement grows with service, reaching fourteen days after six months, subject to certification, notice and other rules.
Is hospitalisation leave sixty days plus fourteen MC days?
No. MOM says the maximum sixty-day hospitalisation-leave total includes the fourteen outpatient sick leave days.
Does a valid private doctor MC mean medical fees must be reimbursed?
It can support paid sick leave if the practitioner qualifies, but statutory consultation-fee reimbursement has additional conditions concerning the medical provider and eligible paid sick leave.
How many childcare leave days do parents get?
Eligible parents of Singapore Citizen children below seven can have six paid days annually; certain eligible parents of non-citizen children can have two days.
How much shared parental leave is available in 2026?
For qualifying births from 1 April 2026, ten weeks are available to share between eligible parents, subject to statutory rules.
How much paternity leave is paid?
Under the current qualifying Government-Paid Paternity Leave scheme, four weeks apply for eligible fathers with children born from 1 April 2025.
Can I use annual leave to shorten my resignation notice?
Only under the relevant agreement and rules; taking approved leave during notice differs from offsetting the notice period.
Where should I check if my employer disputes an entitlement?
Start with MOM’s leave eligibility pages, your contract and relevant records. For eligible claims, consult official TADM or government-paid leave services.
A four-session learning plan
| Session | What to practise | What a correct answer demonstrates |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sort annual, sick, hospitalisation and childcare leave | You know each scheme’s role |
| 2 | Calculate a fictional annual leave pro-rate | You can distinguish completed months and total entitlement |
| 3 | Compare hospitalisation cap against eight used MC days | You understand inclusion rather than addition |
| 4 | Compare parent whose child was born 31 March versus 1 April 2026 | You understand the importance of effective dates |
Related eduKateSG articles
- How Singapore Works | Employment Terms, Payslips and Salary — employment protections beyond leave.
- How Singapore Works | Shared Parental Leave 2026 — parent-specific rules.
- Singapore Vocabulary | Work Passes and Employment Terms — immigration permission versus employment rights.
- Singapore Vocabulary | CHAS and Healthcare Subsidies — medical finances and clinic information.
- Master Vocabulary — meaning, comparison and applying words correctly.
Official MOM sources
- MOM: annual leave eligibility and calculation — seven-to-fourteen-day table and pro-rating.
- MOM: sick leave eligibility and entitlement — three-to-six-month table and combined 60-day cap.
- MOM: consultation fees and salary — valid MC versus fee reimbursement.
- MOM: childcare leave — citizenship and age criteria.
- MOM: maternity leave — sixteen- and twelve-week routes.
- MOM: paternity leave — four weeks under current rules.
- MOM: shared parental leave — ten weeks from 1 April 2026.
- MOM: notice and annual leave — offsetting versus taking leave.
Editorial review: 3 November 2026. Specific entitlement depends on employment-law coverage, individual service, child status, certification and applicable dates. This article teaches workplace vocabulary and does not replace the employment contract or official advice.