Commentary: NDR 2026 – non-parents shouldn’t be default substitutes for parents on childcare leave

This does not require a new leave category for every circumstance. It does mean employers have more decisions to make about how much flexibility to provide without repeatedly shifting extra work onto others.

Employers form expectations too. If they expect parents to be difficult to accommodate, that belief can shape hiring, promotion or task assignment. While government reimbursement reduces the direct cost of expanded childcare leave, better work design reduces the operational hurdles.

If firms build greater substitutability into teams and managers distribute coverage fairly, parents can use childcare leave with less concern about burdening colleagues or hurting their careers. This sends a signal to other employees too: that taking time off for caregiving responsibilities need not impose an unfair burden on any one colleague.

Expanded childcare leave can therefore do more than add days off. Paired with better work design, it can shift how workplaces accommodate caregiving more broadly, making short, unexpected absences easier for everyone to manage.

Chua Yeow Hwee is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is also the Deputy Director of the Economic Growth Centre at NTU. The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not represent the views and opinions of the institutions that he is in.