Sick Leave in Singapore: An Employer’s Guide to Outpatient and Hospitalisation Leave (2026)

Short answer: In Singapore, an employee covered by the Employment Act who has served at least 3 months is entitled to paid sick leave. After 6 months the cap is 14 days of outpatient sick leave and 60 days of hospitalisation leave a year, with the 60 days including the 14. The employee must be certified unfit by a registered doctor or dentist.

This guide on sick leave for Singapore employers covers eligibility, the entitlement in the first 6 months, which medical certificates (MCs) to accept, how much to pay, and payroll records. The rules sit in section 89 of the Employment Act 1968, and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) explains them on its sick leave pages.

Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of experienced Singapore law firms who offer cost-effective and efficient legal service and advice. This article is general information only and is not legal advice.

Who is entitled to paid sick leave in Singapore?

Any employee covered by the Employment Act who has served you for at least 3 months is entitled to paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave. The employee must also be certified unfit for work by a medical practitioner, and must have told you, or tried to tell you, about the absence within 48 hours.

The Employment Act covers employees on a contract of service, local or foreign, full-time, part-time, temporary or contract, and paid hourly, daily, monthly or by piece rate. Seafarers, domestic workers, civil servants and statutory board employees are excluded. Managers and executives are covered for sick leave, even though they are outside Part 4 of the Act on hours of work. For a wider overview of the Act, see our guide to the Singapore Employment Act 2026 key provisions.

Service counts from the first day of work. Sick leave in the first 3 months is unpaid under the Act, though MOM encourages employers to be flexible.

How many days of sick leave must a Singapore employer give?

The entitlement rises with each completed month of service until month 6, after which the employee has the full 14 and 60 days each year. The figures below are the statutory minimum in section 89; your contract can be more generous, never less.

The 60 days is an overall cap, not 60 days on top of 14. MOM’s example: an employee who has already used 14 days of outpatient sick leave in the year can take at most 46 more days of paid hospitalisation leave (60 minus 14).

What counts as hospitalisation leave?

Hospitalisation leave covers the period a hospital doctor decides the employee needs hospital care, including recovery after discharge. Under section 89(3) and MOM’s guidance, it applies when the employee is:

• warded in a public, private or community hospital as an in-patient or for day surgery;
• quarantined under any written law, whether or not in hospital; or
• certified by a doctor who can admit patients to hospital as needing hospitalisation, bed rest (for example, pregnancy-related complications), or further rest or treatment after discharge.

If unsure whether the issuing doctor can admit patients, MOM suggests checking with that doctor directly.

Which medical certificates must an employer accept?

For paid sick leave, the MC must come from a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act or a dentist registered under the Dental Registration Act. MCs from a clinic of the employee’s choice qualify for paid leave, not only those from your company doctor.

Who issued the MC matters more for the consultation fee than for the leave itself:

• Employer-appointed doctors and public medical institutions: you must pay or reimburse the consultation fee where the consultation results in at least one day of paid sick leave (section 89(7A)). MOM says this includes specialists, and applies whether the MC came from an in-person visit or a teleconsultation.
• Other private clinics: the employee still gets paid sick leave, but the Act does not require you to reimburse the fee. Your own medical benefits policy may.
• Overseas doctors and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners: granting paid sick leave is at your discretion. MOM notes that the employee should still be excused from work on the MC.

Tell staff in writing which clinics you appoint, because MOM expects employers to communicate that list clearly. Cosmetic procedures are excluded: you do not have to grant paid sick leave or pay consultation fees where the examining doctor considers the treatment cosmetic (section 89(10)).

What must the employee do, and when is an absence unauthorised?

The employee should tell you as soon as possible and, where the MC is not from your appointed doctor, inform or try to inform you within 48 hours of the start of the leave. The MC is handed in on return to work.

Under section 89(4), an absence is treated as being without permission and without reasonable excuse if the sick leave is not certified by a medical practitioner, or if it is certified by a doctor you did not appoint and the employee made no attempt to notify you within 48 hours. A simple process helps:

1. Set out in the employee handbook how to report sick leave (phone, message or HR system) and to whom.
2. Record the date and time the employee first contacted you.
3. Collect the MC on return and check the dates and the issuing practitioner.
4. Classify the leave as outpatient or hospitalisation leave and deduct it from the right balance.
5. Process any consultation fee reimbursement the Act or your policy requires.

How much do you pay an employee on sick leave?

For each day of paid outpatient sick leave, you pay the gross rate of pay excluding any shift allowance. For each day of paid hospitalisation leave, you pay the full gross rate of pay (section 89(5)).

MOM defines gross rate of pay as including the allowances the employee is entitled to under the contract, but excluding overtime, bonuses, annual wage supplements (AWS), productivity incentives, reimbursement of special expenses, and travel, food and housing allowances. For monthly-rated staff on paid sick leave, the salary simply continues; the leave is not a deduction.

No paid sick leave is due for any period covered by temporary incapacity compensation under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 (section 89(7)).

The company’s spend on medical benefits also has a tax angle. Medical expenses for employees are deductible up to a cap of 1% of total employee remuneration, rising to 2% where portable medical benefits apply; see our explainer on the 1% / 2% medical expense tax deduction cap.

What happens if an MC falls on a public holiday, annual leave or a half day?

No paid sick leave is due on rest days, public holidays, non-working days, days of paid annual leave or days of no-pay leave taken at the employee’s request (section 89(6)).

Does probation or part-time work change sick leave entitlement?

Probation does not affect sick leave. MOM states that entitlement is tied to 3 months’ service and Employment Act coverage, not to whether probation has ended, so a probation clause that removes paid sick leave after month 3 would fall below the statutory minimum.

Part-time employees, those working fewer than 35 hours a week, are entitled to sick and hospitalisation leave pro-rated by hours and expressed in hours, not days. MOM’s formula is: (part-timer’s yearly working hours divided by a similar full-timer’s yearly working hours) multiplied by the full-timer’s days of sick leave, multiplied by the full-timer’s daily working hours. On MOM’s example, a 20-hour-a-week employee compared with a 44-hour full-timer working 8-hour days gets 50.9 hours of outpatient sick leave and 218.2 hours of hospitalisation leave a year, the latter including the former. Part-time sick leave cannot be encashed. MOM sets this out on its part-time leave page. If a part-timer’s hours change mid-year, recalculate the balance; our note on a part-time employee increasing weekly hours walks through the records to update.

Flexible work requests are a separate matter. The Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests, in effect since 1 December 2024, govern how you consider formal requests and give you 2 months to respond; they do not change sick leave entitlement. Our flexible work arrangements guide covers the process.

What payroll records must you keep for sick leave?

Employers must keep employment records for all staff covered by the Employment Act, including the dates and details of leave taken. Records for current employees cover the latest 2 years; for ex-employees, the last 2 years must be kept for 1 year after they leave. Soft or hard copies are acceptable.

In practice, keep each MC (or a scan), the notification time, the leave category, the running balances and any reimbursed fees. No-pay leave deductions must appear on the itemised payslip. If no-pay days are keyed in after salaries are calculated, our guide to reconciling unpaid leave entered late shows how to correct the month. The calculators on our free tools page help with related payroll figures.

Foreign employees on work passes are covered by the Employment Act in the same way as local staff, so the same sick leave rules apply to them. Our sister site Singapore Employment Agency covers work pass hiring and compliance.

What are the common sick leave mistakes employers make?

• Treating the 60 hospitalisation days as additional to the 14 outpatient days.
• Withholding paid sick leave during probation after the 3-month mark.
• Rejecting MCs from private clinics or teleconsultations issued by registered doctors, when only the fee reimbursement depends on the clinic.
• Deducting shift allowance from hospitalisation leave pay, or paying basic salary only when contractual allowances form part of the gross rate of pay.
• Pro-rating part-timers in days instead of hours.
• Terminating employment simply for taking sick leave. MOM says employers should not do this, and the employee may file a wrongful dismissal claim at the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management within one month of the last day of employment.

Frequently asked questions

Is sick leave in Singapore 14 days or 60 days?

Both. After 6 months’ service, the employee gets up to 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave and up to 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave a year, and the 60 days includes the 14.

Can an employer refuse an MC from a teleconsultation?

No, if it is from a registered doctor certifying the employee unfit for work. MOM confirms that fee reimbursement for government or company-approved doctors also applies to teleconsultations.

Do I have to pay medical consultation fees for every sick employee?

Under the Act, only where the employee has served at least 3 months, the doctor is your appointed doctor or from a public medical institution, and the consultation results in at least one day of paid sick leave. Many employers go further through a medical benefits scheme.

What if an employee has no sick leave left?

MOM suggests extended no-pay leave for an agreed period, other working arrangements such as reassigned duties, or a medical assessment of whether the employee can continue working.

Last reviewed: 22 October 2026. The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services.