Macau, China, Jan. 30, 2026 (Lusa) - The Macau Government on Friday proposed increasing maternity leave to 90 days and annual leave to 12 days to reverse the falling birth rate which is the lowest in the world.
At a press conference, the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) announced a 45-day public consultation on the changes, which will run from Saturday until 16 March.
The DSAL proposes to extend maternity leave in the private sector from 70 to 90 days - a figure already applied to civil servants in the Chinese region - with the costs to be shared between the Government and employers.
To "ease the pressure" on the costs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the government wants to grant a subsidy equivalent to up to 20 days of maternity leave, but only for female workers with resident status.
At the end of November, the Chinese special administrative region had more than 184,000 migrant workers, representing more than a third (37.2%) of the working population.
The authorities also want to increase annual leave in the private sector, based on seniority. For 40 years, permanent residents of Macao have been entitled to only six paid days of annual leave. Civil servants are entitled to 22 working days.
The territory's government proposes that workers be entitled to one additional working day of holiday for every two years they spend at the same company, up to a maximum of 12 working days per year.
One of the objectives of the changes, said DSAL director Chan Un Tong, is to enable the population of Macao to "achieve a better balance between work and family life".
In 2025, the government commissioned a study "from a third party" - whose identity was not disclosed - on the possible increase in maternity leave and annual leave, which was completed at the end of the year.
The study included a survey, according to which workers consider both the current maternity leave and annual leave "insufficient to meet family needs".
When asked by Lusa about the potential impact of the changes on the birth rate in Macau, which in 2024 was the lowest in the world, Chan Un Tong replied that the aim is to "improve workers' right to rest".
"The Government has, in various ways, tried to create conditions for residents to have a better life," added the DSAL director.
In early July, Macau's parliament approved a budget review to strengthen social support, including the creation of a subsidy totalling 54,000 patacas (about €5,625) for children up to three years of age.
The government chief Sam Hou Fai said that it was necessary to "create conditions in terms of education and employment" to increase the low birth rate, which he pointed out as one of the city's biggest long-term challenges.
On 31 December, the Macao Social Security Fund argued that "conditions should be established to begin implementation, in a gradual and orderly manner," of a mandatory contribution scheme.
Macau recorded 2,871 newborns in 2025, a 20.4% drop and the lowest number of births in almost 50 years, said Tai Wa Hou, deputy director of the Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, on 1 January.
Macau recorded only 0.58 births per woman in 2024, far below the figure needed for generational replacement (2.1), the lowest fertility rate ever in the region and the lowest in the world, according to official data.
This figure is even lower than the estimate made in a report released in July by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA): 0.68 births per woman.
Although more optimistic, the UNDESA estimate already indicated that Macau had the lowest birth rate in the world in 2024, far below the second jurisdiction on the list, Singapore, with 0.95 births per woman.
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Lusa
