A public consultation in Macau released today has concluded that residents agree with proposed increases to annual leave and maternity leave as a means to address the territory’s low birth rate.
In January of this year, authorities in the Macau proposed increasing maternity leave in the private sector from 70 to 90 days to combat the declining birth rate, and raising annual leave from six to 12 days, scaled according to a “worker’s seniority.”
The public consultation ran until March 16. Today, the Macau Government declared that the analysis of over one thousand opinions and suggestions collected demonstrates that the legislative proposal to increase the territory’s maternity leave was “well-received by society.”
Following a plenary meeting of the Standing Committee for Social Concertation, the Director of the Labour Affairs Bureau, Chan Un Tong, indicated that the amendment to the Labour Relations Law will be finalized by the end of the year.
Read more about this topic: Macau’s fertility rate falls to new record low in 2025
Currently, only public servants are entitled to 90 days of maternity leave. For fathers, the leave consists of five paid working days. In March, Macau’s six gaming concessionaires increased the maternity leave offered to their employees to 90 days, a move that aligns with recent government efforts to encourage childbirth in the city. The Macau gaming industry employed approximately 65,300 workers according to 2025 data.
In the first quarter of this year, 690 babies were born in Macau, an 8% decrease compared to the first quarter of last year, according to the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). According to the United Nations World Fertility Report 2024, the total fertility rate in Macau fell to 0.68 children per woman of childbearing age, the lowest in the world.
Last year, Macau recorded 2,871 newborns—the lowest number of births in nearly 50 years. However, Macau’s fertility rate has been falling for 11 consecutive years, reaching another historic low in 2025 of 0.47 births per woman between the ages of 15 and 49, according to official data.
The head of Macau’s public hospital predicted earlier this year that there should be more than 3,000 births in 2026, an increase of at least 4.5%. To encourage births, the Government has introduced measures in recent years such as a subsidy for permanent resident parents with children born between 2022 and 2025, valued at 18,000 patacas (approximately 1,932 euros) per year, granted for three years.
