Female employees in Singapore can expect more support in 2024
- Shawn Liew
Upcoming legislation will provide better protection against gender discrimination and ensure employees in Singapore are hired purely on merit. It will also provide better guidelines for employees when it comes to managing flexible work arrangements, said Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information.
Speaking at the recent International Women’s Day Conference and Dinner organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), Teo focused on how women in the workplace will be better supported, especially those who have to take on caregiving duties.
An expansion of the Household Services Scheme to include basic child-minding and elder-minding services is also being piloted to provide more options for families to meet their household needs, she said.
The scheme currently allows companies to hire more migrant workers to provide part-time domestic services, such as home cleaning.
To encourage more women back into the workforce, childcare fees will be further reduced and non-working mothers from lower-income households will get higher subsidies for their children in pre-schools.
The SGD$4,000 (USD$2,977) top up to the SkillsFuture Credit – a scheme that encourages skills and deepening or reskilling into new areas outside of employees’ current field – will also provide the impetus for women to learn new skills that will allow them to re-enter the workforce.
Teo explained, “Not only had they stagnated relative to their peers, they had to compete with younger workers with new skills.”
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She added that the employment rate for women in Singapore aged 25 to 64, at 77%, remains one of the highest in the world, while the adjusted pay gap has continued to be narrowed, reported The Straits Times.
