Tuition centre founder says ‘generous’ childcare leave could hurt SMEs, make parents less competitive in job market
A mother of three and founder of a tuition centre has raised concerns over Singapore’s “generous” childcare leave scheme announced during the recent National Day Rally (NDR), warning that the policy could unintentionally affect parents’ competitiveness in the job market.
During the NDR speech on Aug 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced that working parents with children aged 12 and below will get between eight and 12 days of childcare leave a year, depending on the number of children they have. The policy’s implementation date is pending tripartite consultation.
Currently, each working parent gets six days of childcare leave when their youngest child is aged six and below. When the youngest child is aged seven to 12, parents are entitled to two days of childcare leave.
May, the 33-year-old founder of math tuition centre Maythematics, said in a TikTok post on Aug 25 that she was “concerned” with the “generous childcare leave policies”.
The mother of three clarifies that although she “benefits more than most”, she foresees “fundamental problems” with the move.
May says that possible manpower shortages are a concern for her — she explains that a team of 10 parents entitled to six days of childcare leave each would mean employers would have to find other workers to cover a total of 60 days.
She also suggests that “the employer’s actual cost is a lot more than just the salary reimbursement”, pointing out that an employee’s salary is “only a part of what it costs to employ someone”.
Companies have to factor in the cost of rent, marketing, training, software, equipment, and more, she adds.
“So an employee ultimately needs to create more value than their actual salary to help to cover all these costs, and these costs are not even including the fact that we have to hire another person to take on the job of the staff who is on leave,” she says.
Another issue she raises is that parents could “unintentionally become less competitive in the job market”. Companies might begin to consider “balancing” manpower by hiring someone without childcare responsibilities, she suggests.
This “operational difference” could “subconsciously” influence hiring decisions, though she acknowledges that employers should not discriminate against parents.
“Having children should not disadvantage an employee in their career, but equally, hiring someone with children should not disadvantage an employer operationally,” she adds.
‘Not suggesting employees should be overworked’: Tution centre founder responds
In response to Stomp’s queries, May explained that the issue was deeply personal, recounting how she felt “increasingly sidelined” in her previous workplace when she was pregnant with her first child.
May said that such experiences were common in her circle, prompting her to feel strongly about the issue.
In fact, May said one of her current employees had gone through a similar experience two years ago. The employee left her previous workplace about three months before giving birth and joined May’s company, where she was supported through her maternity leave and transition back to work. She remains with the company today.
May clarified that her concern was “never that parents should not receive more support”. Instead, she was concerned about the “unintended consequences” that could arise if employers “struggle operationally with the additional absence”.
Though she acknowledged that employers do not intentionally “discriminate” against parents, manpower constraints are a real issue among business owners, especially growing SMEs with lean teams.
“I also recognise that part of this responsibility lies with us as entrepreneurs,” she clarified, stressing that she was “not suggesting that employees should be overworked or exploited”.
“I was referring to the basic economics of running a sustainable business — collectively, the value created has to exceed the total cost of running the business.”
As for a feasible solution, May felt that greater support for SMEs in connecting companies with business or manpower consultants would be helpful to get advice on building more resilient frameworks.
She also suggested that companies employing a higher proportion of parents could receive additional grants or subsidies to manage the operational impact of caregiving leave.
For parents who voluntarily choose not to utilise their childcare leave, she pointed out that there could be options to receive other forms of compensation instead, offering greater flexibility for families with different needs.
Businesses have to ‘brace themselves for changes like this’: Netizens
May’s video garnered over 54,900 views, with many netizens offering alternative perspectives.
“If you want to run a business, you need to brace yourself for changes like this,” one netizen commented.
Another agreed that it was “challenging but not impossible”, encouraging open conversations with her team.
The additional days of childcare leave would also be “staggered” and spread out over a year, a netizen pointed out, suggesting that business owners should “absorb operational risk”.
Several netizens felt that she was “trying to overwork” her staff, calling the viewpoint “selfish and irresponsible”.
However, there were some who echoed her sentiment, suggesting that one could support new policies while raising concerns at the same time.
“We should help provide constructive suggestions on how the management can compromise, how the childcare leave can be planned around the constraints or help businesses to voice out these concerns for policymakers,” the netizen commented.
Some employers who spoke to The Straits Times acknowledged the possible challenges associated with the recently announced move, but also shared plans to double down on cross-training and digitalisation to minimise operational disruptions.
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