Teo worked at Singapore's Economic Development Board from 1992 to 2002. She began her career there in enterprise development, and was later posted to Suzhou, China, as part of EDB's pioneering team there. While on secondment to the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Pte Ltd, she was responsible for Marketing Resources. Upon her return to Singapore, Teo became the EDB's Head of Human Resources. From 2002 to 2006, Teo served as the Head of Human Resources at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. In November 2005, Teo also took on the role of Director of Human Resources at the Administration and Research Unit of the National Trades Union Congress. After her election to Parliament in 2006, Teo also took on additional roles within the NTUC and the labour movement. She served as the Executive Secretary of the Singapore Industrial Services Employees' Union. At the ARU, she served as the Alignment Director and Alignment Director , and as the Centric Director . She also served as the NTUC's Assistant Secretary-General from 2007 to 2011. From 2009 to 2011, Teo also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Business China, an organisation established to nurture an inclusive bilingual and bi-cultural group of Singaporeans through the use of Chinese language and to develop a cultural and economic bridge between China and the world.
Political career
Teo entered Parliament at the 2006 general election as an MP for the Bishan–Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency. During her first term in Parliament, she served as the Chair of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, and as a member of the GPC for Defence & Foreign Affairs. Following the 2011 general election, Teo was appointed a Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport on 18 May 2011, succeeding Ms Lim Hwee Hua in her finance and transport portfolios. Teo was promoted to Senior Minister Of State at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport on 1 September 2013. She served as the Senior Minister Of State at the Ministry of Finance until 30 September 2015. She was promoted to full minister and be appointed as Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, and Second Minister in the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1 May 2017. She also oversees the National Population and Talent Division. Teo later succeeded Mr Lim Swee Say as Manpower Minister on 1 May 2018, being the second female minister to helm a ministry after Grace Fu.
Controversies
In a media interview in October 2016, Teo responded to questions of whether Singaporeans are getting their HDB flats early enough in order to start a family, stating that one "does not need much space to have sex". Teo further added that "In France, in the UK, in the Nordic countries, man meets woman, tonight they can make a baby already." This drew much flak from the public, with many Singaporeans criticizing her for being insensitive and not being able to understand practical considerations such as the high costs of living. Others also accused Teo of trying to promote Western values, ways of life and promiscuity in Singapore. In May 2017, Teo commenting on the issue of high cost of milk powder in Singapore on her Facebook page, wrote that "milk is milk, however fancy the marketing". She further claimed that she would buy whichever brand of milk powder approved for sale by AVA that was cheapest for her own kids. She was criticised for not knowing that even the cheapest milk powder in Singapore is still much more expensive than other countries in the region. In addition, different babies may require additional supplements, or have certain allergies and preferences to milk powder. On 26 October 2018, Teo commented that implementing minimum wage in Singapore may instead lead to higher unemployment and that Singapore's income inequality gap is "a problem of success" that is "difficult to overcome". She made these comments at the Institute of Policy Studies 's 30th anniversary conference, Diversities: New and Old, where IPS's special adviser Professor Tommy Koh pointed out that Singapore's income profile today "looks more like a pear than an olive", with a large number of people "at the bottom", as opposed to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew's vision of "a Singapore which resembles an olive - very few very rich, very few poor people, and a very large middle income".
A Singaporean of Hakka descent, Teo's maiden surname is Yong. She is currently married to a former civil servant Teo Eng Cheong. The couple have three children, two daughters and one son.
