Why a business owner mum isn’t jumping for joy over NDR2026 support measures

SINGAPORE: While many in Singapore, especially parents, greeted the additional family support measures announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in his National Day Rally speech last Sunday (Aug 23), one mother, who is also a business owner, took to TikTok to explain why she isn’t jumping for joy. 

Math Tutor May (@maythematics) is a mother of three and owns two math tuition centres. She clarified from the start that she is grateful for the new support measures, adding that she probably benefits from them more than many of those watching her video.

However, as an SME owner whose staff is more than 80% female, she went on to explain the three “fundamental problems” that she felt needed to be addressed.

The first concerns childcare leave, which will increase to 12 days per parent in families with three or more children. This could lead to manpower shortages, said Ms May, especially in businesses like hers, where tutors cannot be easily replaced.

 “When my teacher needs to take a leave, I can’t possibly get a person who doesn’t have math knowledge… And I believe this is so for every industry out there, especially service-based industries,” she said.

The second problem has to do with the reimbursement for employers whose workers go on childcare leave, which will be shouldered by the government.

However, salaries, said Ms May, are only one part of what it costs to employ someone, as “companies also pay for rent, marketing, training, software, equipment. management, admin support and things like that. So an employee ultimately needs to create more value than their actual salary to help cover all these costs.”

Added to this would be possible additional costs of another employee having to train the worker who comes in to take the place of the one on childcare leave.

The third problem she talked about was the most concerning for her. Ms May said that parents could unintentionally become less competitive in the job market, something that she experienced personally when she was placed out of her job when she was pregnant with her first child.

“I know firsthand what it’s like when having children affects your career and it is the worst feeling that anyone could go through… I don’t want anyone to go through that,” Ms May said.

Companies who already have parents on their staff could be influenced to favour job applicants who have no childcare duties over those who do.

“Employers should not discriminate against parents. But if employing someone with greater caregiving responsibilities creates an operational disadvantage. we have to recognise that it could unintentionally influence hiring behaviour.

To me, that is the worst possible unintended consequence,” she added.

Ms May said that she did not claim to have solutions for the problems she raised, but suggested possibilities such as “relief manpower support, incentives for cross-training, and more assistance, specifically for smaller companies.”

Ultimately, if the goal of the new support measures is to raise the fertility rate, then family employment ought to be made sustainable, Ms May added.

“Having children should not disadvantage an employee in their career, but hiring someone with children should not disadvantage employers operationally. Perhaps that’s the real challenge we need to solve. If we can solve both sides of the equation, then I think it will be a truly meaningful step forward for Singapore,” she said. /TISG

Read also: ‘This is a lot of help to families!’: Singaporeans react to PM Wong’s NDR announcements, including S$70,000 for children’s financial support