Sick Leave Entitlement in Singapore

An Employment Act employee with at least 3 months of service is entitled to paid sick leave — up to 14 days of outpatient sick leave a year, or up to 60 days where hospitalisation is required, certified by a registered doctor. The rules come from the Employment Act, administered by MOM, and they bind every employer regardless of what the contract says.

Last reviewed 10 June 2026 · Source: Ministry of Manpower (Employment Act).

Who qualifies, and the 48-hour rule

Two gates: the employee is covered by the Employment Act (since 1 April 2019, that is everyone on a contract of service, PMEs included) and has worked for you for at least 3 months — the same waiting period as annual leave.

There is also a duty on the employee's side that bosses under-use: an employee must inform you of their absence within 48 hours. Fail that, and the absence is treated as absence without permission — unpaid, and open to disciplinary action. Put the 48-hour expectation in your handbook so nobody discovers it mid-dispute.

The entitlement ladder: 5 to 14, 15 to 60

Sick leave phases in over the first half-year of service:

Months of service	Outpatient sick leave	Where hospitalisation is required
3 months	5 days	15 days
4 months	8 days	30 days
5 months	11 days	45 days
6 months and after	14 days	60 days

The single most common misreading: the hospitalisation figure is a combined cap, inclusive of the outpatient days — an employee at 6+ months gets up to 14 outpatient days, or up to 60 days in total where hospitalisation is involved. Never 14 + 60 = 74.

Worked example — an employee at 7 months of service has taken 10 outpatient days, then is warded for 3 weeks. The 21 hospitalisation days draw on the combined 60-day pool, of which 10 are already used: 50 remain, so all 21 days are paid hospitalisation leave, leaving 29.

Which medical certificates you must accept

Since the 2022 change, an outpatient medical certificate (MC) is valid from any practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act or the Dental Registration Act — you can no longer insist on a company-approved panel doctor for the MC itself. A hospitalisation MC must come from a practitioner who can admit patients into hospitals.

MOM does not publish a precise list of what counts as "hospitalised" beyond that admitting-practitioner test — so for borderline cases (day surgery, certified bed rest), go by what the certifying doctor's MC says rather than a home-grown definition, and confirm unusual cases with MOM directly.

What sick leave pays

Both kinds of sick leave are paid at the gross rate of pay — basic salary plus contractual allowances. One carve-out: outpatient sick leave pay excludes shift allowance (whether shift allowance continues is left to agreement between you and the employee or union).

Sick leave taken on a day the employee was rostered to work is a paid day. Which leads to the overlap rule below.

When you must also pay the doctor's bill

Reimbursing the consultation fee is mandatory when all three conditions are met:

• the employee has worked for you for at least 3 months, and
• the MC resulted in at least one day of paid sick leave, and
• the certifying doctor is from a public medical institution (public and community hospitals, national specialty centres, public ambulatory surgical centres) or a doctor appointed by your company.

Note the asymmetry: a private GP's MC is valid for the leave, but does not trigger mandatory fee reimbursement unless that GP is company-appointed. And the 48-hour rule governs absence notification only — it is not a condition on reimbursement.

Days that don't count

Sick leave applies only to days the employee would otherwise have had to work. Falling sick on any of these earns no paid sick leave and no fee reimbursement:

• rest days and non-working days,
• public holidays,
• days already on annual leave,
• days on no-pay leave.

An employee who falls ill mid-holiday may ask to cancel the annual leave and take sick leave instead — but that conversion is discretionary, something to discuss and agree, not a statutory right. Decide your policy once and apply it consistently.

What to set up in practice

• Record every employee's start date — the ladder, like annual leave's, keys off completed months of service.
• Track outpatient and hospitalisation days against the combined cap, not two separate pots.
• Write the 48-hour notification rule and your MC-submission process into the handbook.
• Decide which clinics you appoint, since that determines when fee reimbursement is mandatory.

Sick leave records are employment records — keep them 2 years for current employees and 1 year after exit, the same clock as payslips. And because sick leave days are paid at the gross rate, they flow into the month's salary and CPF like ordinary worked days — no payroll adjustment needed unless the entitlement is exhausted.