Holidays in Singapore are opportunities for employees and employers to rest, enjoy leisure, spend time with family, and/or fulfil religious or cultural obligations. All workers have 11 paid public holidays every year per the Employment Act. However, if you want your employees to work on a public holiday, you can either grant them off in lieu or pay their salary for that extra day.
Calculating their salary will be easier with Adaptive Pay as your HRMS software. Our platform has powerful and reliable attendance, rostering, and leave management solutions to simplify these aspects with automation and cloud-based access.
What are Singapore’s public holidays in 2024?
As an employer, you need to be aware of these official days off to effectively plan staff schedules and avoid disruptions to work continuity. Here’s a list of public holidays to take note of in 2024:
New Year’s Day - January 1 (Monday)
Chinese New Year – February 10 and 11 (Saturday and Sunday). February 12 (Monday) will be a public holiday if the rest day is on February 11.
Good Friday – March 29 (Friday)
Hari Raya Puasa – April 10 (Wednesday)
Labour Day – May 1 (Wednesday)
Vesak Day – May 22 (Wednesday)
Hari Raya Haji – June 17 2024 (Monday)
National Day – August 9 (Friday)
Deepavali – October 31 (Thursday)
Christmas Day – December 25 (Wednesday)
What do you need to know about Singapore holiday pay?
In Singapore, employees are entitled to receive their full gross rate of pay for a public holiday if they meet these two conditions:
They were not absent from work on the working day immediately before or after the public holiday without a valid reason or your permission.
They were on approved leave (paid annual leave, sick leave, or unpaid leave) on the day before or after the holiday.
If an employee's approved unpaid leave falls on a public holiday itself, they will not be entitled to public holiday pay for that specific day.
However, if their approved unpaid leave falls on the day before or after the holiday, they will still be eligible for public holiday pay.
What if the public holiday falls on their non-working day or rest day?
Based on the Employment Act, your employees can get another day off or an extra day’s salary in place of that public holiday at the gross pay rate. If the public holiday is on their rest day, the next working day is considered a paid public holiday.
In cases where the Employment Act doesn’t apply to the employee, you can decide their pay or day off based on the terms of their employment contract. Whether they’re covered by the Employment Act or not, Adaptive Pay can help with attendance, payroll, and leave management.
Working on a public holiday
By default, if you require your employees to work on a public holiday in Singapore, you need to compensate them with an additional day's pay on top of their regular salary.
However, there are alternative options available (provided that both you and the employee agree):
Time off in lieu (for employees not covered by Part IV of the Employment Act) - This allows the employee to take a day off in place of working on the public holiday. This option is only applicable to employees whose terms of employment are not governed by Part IV of the Employment Act (typically executives, managers, and professionals).
Public holiday in lieu - The employee can be granted another day off as compensation for working on the public holiday. This substitute day off can be scheduled at a mutually agreed-upon time.
Calculating public holiday pay
Adaptive Pay takes the guesswork out of calculating your employee’s public holiday pay. Our cloud HRMS software is compliant with MOM, IRAS, and CPF regulations and automatically integrates employee data to simplify attendance, payroll, and leave management for processing. It even has a pre-payroll acknowledgement feature so employees can report discrepancies they find on their paychecks before you process the payroll.
Use Adaptive Pay and see how it can simplify your payroll and leave management, no matter your industry. Our customisable and flexible platform is also ready to integrate with third-party accounting apps and makes it easier to configure payroll components like deductions, basic salary, and allowances. Request a demo today!
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