How much annual leave is standard?

[tomhigson]

I see job adverts proudly stating '18 days rest' as a core bonus. Is this likely to be the annual leave entitlement? Is that considered a lot in Singapore?

Some follow-up questions: Is there a legal minimum entitlement? Is it common to buy back additional day's holiday? Are there many bank holidays?

Thank you and kind regards,
Thomas

[Rian_Suganob]

As per Mjnistry of Manpower, 14 days is the standard amount of annual leave.
About buying back additional days, it depends on the company, some give extra off if you worked on a weekend or a holiday. Bank Holidays, there are quite a number in a year. Dates are not always fixed for holidays like CNY, Vesak, Deepavali, Good Friday, Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji. The fixed ones are New Year (Jan 1), Labor Day (May 1), National Day (Aug 9) and Christmas Day (Dec 25). Please note that if a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is holiday as well. For some companies, if the holiday falls on a Saturday, either they add it as annual leave or the next Monday is off.

[Tina_Lim]

Typical for local companies is 14 days at least. While most banks and multinationals give 20-25 days.

I don't think there is a legal minimum.
Typically leave that is not used is rolled over or forfeited. Unless you have quit, companies usually do not buy back unused leave.

[kxxling]

Hi Thomas,

Yes, the "18 days rest" refers to annual leave entitlement, and usually job description would have just said it as such.

18 days of leave for SG is considered quite a lot.The legal minimum is 7 days for your first year of work.
Average here tend to be 12-14 days but this depends a lot on the industry you're in and if you're working for a MNC.

As for buying back leave days, this is not a common practice as usually companies will let you rollover a maximum no. of uncleared leave to the next year instead.

There's 11 days of bank holidays and we call it public holiday here.

Cheers,
Tanya

[Darren_Low]

Hi Thomas, the legal minimum for annual leave is 7 days. That said, many companies in Singapore actually offer 14 days of annual leave as a standard so 18 days is considered a lot.

There are no special bank holidays in Singapore. We get 11 days of public holidays every year. Taking no pay leave is generally discouraged as it affects your performance appraisal.

[adriantan]

The currently mandated legal minimum according to Singapore's Employment Act is 7 days for the first year and it increases by a day for each year you stay with the same company.

Details are here:
Ministry of Manpower Annual Leave

However that being said, the 'benchmark' average is 14 days for most companies but will vary depending on company/industry. Government and civil service tends to give a bit more (usually 18), private companies at the start a little less (12-14). Note that this does not include sick days.

I am not sure what you infer by buying back additional day's holiday here but it would be more like no pay leave, just basically not being paid for that day that you took leave for once you have exhausted your year's allocated leave.

By bank holidays I presume you mean public holidays here (Christmas, New Year's and such)? There are basically 10 events per year that warrant a holiday in Singapore. Generally around 20 days give or take depending on which day of the week the holiday falls on.

Again details can be found here:
Singapore Public Holidays

As an extra bit of info, the breakdown of these 10 events are divided for 3 major cultural races staying in Singapore (2 each for the Chinese, Malay and Indian), 2 Christian (Good Friday, Xmas) and 2 general (New Years, National Day).

[Fiyah_Faith]

Hi Tom,

Based on my understanding and experience, employees covered under the Employment Act are entitled to around 12-14 days minimum depending on their job contract and years of working period in a company. Yes, it seems that 18 is the annual leave. This means that it does not include other privileges such as compassionate leave, exam leave etc. This would be considered as a lot should you have the extra leaves.

As per “buy back”, I did not catch what you meant. If you are saying should you not utilise the 18 days leave in the 1st year, would it be accumulated to the 2nd year, then yes. However some companies may have a utilisation period whereby you have to utilise it within 2 years. Should you fail to do so, there is no compensation and it will be voided.

(Again to stress that it depends on the company so it is best to check with the company)

Regards,
HRM student 🏻‍

[Conny_Lim]

Under the national employment act, the minimum number of days for annual leave is 7 days. One day is added for each additional year of services up to 14 days. As a general guideline, people get about 15 to 18 days of annual leave per annum. On top of this, there are 11 days of public holidays a year.

[Mustafa_Sabuwala]

12-21 days is usually the range of annual leave. Legal minimum is 7 days. There are 12 public holidays in Singapore.
Encashment of leaves is dependent on company policy.

[sebkun]

Hi,
I think the minimum legal is 7 days paid leave.
There's is 12 days paid public holiday each year, if it happens a Sunday, it postponed to the Monday, so you dont lose it.

Most company offers min 12 days paid leave + 1 bonus day per year in the company.

Lot of company offers 21 days paid leave, especially western company.

Cheers,
Seb

[Olivia3]

14 days is the usual. Wouldn't say 18 days is great, but it's better than the norm. We have about 10-11 public holidays. Not very common to buy back additional holidays, I don't think. I've not heard about anyone doing this, but most of the people in my circle are in the same industry so maybe it's just not the norm in our industry.

[kwloo]

18 days is considered "more than normal" since most companies only offer 14 days (except for financial institutions eg banks and certain MNCs). Under the local Employment Act, the legal minimum is 7 days of Annual Leave for those who have completed 1 year of service and rising 1 day a year up to 14 days (after serving 8 years).

There are bank holidays - 11 days a year.