Future legislation will guarantee that workers in Singapore are hired only on the basis of merit and offer stronger protection against gender discrimination. According to Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, it will also give workers better standards for handling flexible work schedules.
Speaking at the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI)’s recent International Women’s Day Conference and Dinner, Teo concentrated on improving assistance for working women, particularly those who must take on caregiving responsibilities.
She said a pilot programme is expanding the Household Services Scheme to include basic child-minding and elder-minding services to give families additional options for meeting their household needs.
At the moment, the programme enables businesses to employ additional migrant labourers to perform part-time domestic tasks like house cleaning.
The government intends to encourage more women to return to the workforce by further reducing childcare costs and increasing subsidies for children attending pre-schools for non-working moms from lower-income households.
The SGD $4,000 (USD $2,977) supplement to the SkillsFuture Credit programme, which promotes skill development and reskilling in fields other than the employee’s present one, will also help women acquire new abilities that will enable them to reenter the workforce.
“Not only had they stagnated in comparison to their peers, but they also had to compete with younger workers who possessed new skills,” Teo clarified.
She proceeded by saying that Singapore continues to have one of the highest employment rates in the world for women aged 25 to 64, at 77%, and that the adjusted pay gap has been closing, according to The Straits Times.
