Is Polling Day 2025 a Public Holiday? What Singapore Employers Need to Know

Singapore will be heading to the polls on May 3, 2025—a Saturday—for the country’s 14th General Election. As confirmed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Polling Day has been gazetted as a public holiday.

For small business owners, especially those who operate on Saturdays, it’s important to understand how this affects your operations, your employees, and your payroll obligations.

So… Is May 3 a Public Holiday?

Yes. Polling Day is a public holiday, even though it falls on a Saturday.

Under the Employment Act, employees are entitled to paid public holidays. This includes Polling Day.

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What If My Employees Don’t Usually Work Saturdays?

If your employee doesn’t normally work on Saturdays, but Polling Day falls on one, you’ll still need to provide either:

• A day off, or
  
• Salary in lieu of that public holiday
  

This ensures your team receives the full benefit of the public holiday, as required under the Employment Act.

What If They Do Work on May 3?

If your employee is required to work on May 3, you must compensate them in one of the following ways:

• An extra day’s salary, or
  
• A day off on another day 

MOM also notes that time-off-in-lieu may be given (based on agreed hours) for such employees:

Workmen earning more than S$4,500/month

• Non-workmen earning more than S$2,600/month
  
• Managers and executives
  

What Should Employers Do Now?

• Review your team’s Saturday work schedules
  
• Decide how you’ll compensate employees—either with salary in lieu, a day off, or time-off-in-lieu
  
• Communicate this clearly to your team
  
• Ensure your payroll software or provider reflects these changes accurately
  

Do You Need Payroll Outsourced?

You should consider a specialist payroll provider if:

• You want to spend way less time thinking about payroll
  
• In-house processing is costing more than it’s worth
  
• Your payment workflows are too manual—or too messy
  
• Your payroll software is starting to feel like… more work
  
• Your team’s growing, and so are the headaches
  

That’s where we come in. With Counto’s end-to-end payroll, everything’s done for you—accurately, on time, and without the stress.

• Chat with us now
• Send us an email: [email protected]
• Fill out a brief contact form

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