This letter was originally published to The Straits Times on 11 February 2022. 

We appreciate Mr Abhishek Bajaj’s letter, “More can be done to help underprivileged women” (Feb 7), about the need for a “systematic approach to address the factors inhibiting mothers from taking up work opportunities”. We would like to add to his suggestions.

First, we urge businesses to accept a wider stakeholder view of their responsibility to society, and invest in well-paying jobs that pay decent wages.

Last year’s Minimum Income Standards report on households in Singapore found that a single parent with one young child requires $3,218 per month to lead a decent life. But many households’ incomes fall far short of this figure.

We hope that more businesses can index their jobs to the incomes households require for a decent life.

Second, flexi-work and freelance work can be a useful way to minimise work-care conflict if employers let mothers organise their time.

Casual work’s unpredictable nature makes childcare and eldercare difficult to organise, especially when a mother’s work hours fall outside regular childcare centre hours, or when she lacks notice to plan alternative caregiving arrangements around shifts.

Lastly, more attention to home-based businesses is certainly desirable, but people must go beyond ordering the occasional cake from a mum-owned business.

Our national policy discourse on self-employed persons needs to take these business owners more squarely into account.

Last year, the Ministry of Manpower initiated public consultation on proposed measures to strengthen protections for platform workers who provide transport and delivery services.

Similar consultation should be organised to focus on the unique struggles of home-based businesses.

We know, for example, that some home-based business owners may not receive Workfare Income Supplement top-ups because they don’t know they need to be registered with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore to be eligible.

The consultation should address this and other challenges these people face.

Elizabeth Quek, Project Manager, AWARE