Severance is not a legal entitlement in the United States unless a contract, a written policy, an ERISA plan or a state mini-WARN law creates one. The common convention is one to two weeks of pay per year of service, capped. Because it is discretionary, the terms are usually more negotiable than the amount — and the non-cash items are where most people leave value behind.
There is no legal entitlement
No federal law requires an employer to pay severance at all. Almost everything about the offer you receive is therefore a choice somebody made, which means most of it can be discussed. That is the single most useful fact in this entire subject.
No state law requires it either, with the notable exception of New Jersey, which mandates severance based on years of service in covered mass layoffs. Everywhere else it exists only where a contract, a written policy, an ERISA plan or a collective agreement creates it. Absent one of those, it is entirely discretionary.
What you are being offered is a contract rather than a benefit. Money in exchange for something the employer wants from you. Understanding what that something actually is changes the whole conversation and it is the difference between asking for a favor and discussing a price.
What the employer is actually buying
What they are buying is a release of your legal claims. That is the point of the payment and the reason there is anything to negotiate. Nothing else in the document explains why money is changing hands at all.
If you had no possible claim of any kind, the release would be worth nothing and so would your position. That is why the size of an offer frequently reflects how badly the employer wants certainty rather than how long you worked there. Tenure sets the formula and risk sets the exception to it.
That distinction explains most of the variation people find inexplicable. Two colleagues with identical tenure receiving different offers is common, and the reason is usually about risk rather than about merit. Neither of those two colleagues did anything wrong at all.
What is typical
The common convention is one to two weeks of pay per year of service, frequently with a floor of a few weeks and sometimes a cap at the top. Senior roles frequently do better than the formula suggests. Formal written policies vary widely by employer and by industry.
Treat any published benchmark as a rough orientation rather than an entitlement you can point at. It describes a market rather than your employer, and your employer is the only one making this offer. The convention is a starting point for your expectations rather than an argument.
What your employer paid the last three people in your situation is far more predictive than any national figure. Colleagues who have already been through it are usually willing to say, and that single conversation is worth more than any amount of research. Ask around before you respond to the offer in front of you.
The parts people forget are negotiable
The separation date is the most valuable and the least requested. Moving it later can carry you past a vesting date, a bonus payment or a benefits threshold, and it frequently costs the employer very little. Work out your own dates before the conversation.
Continued health coverage is next, either extended or with the employer paying part of the premium for a period. That is frequently worth more than an extra week of pay and is often easier for them to agree, because it comes from a different budget. Ask for a stated number of months rather than a vague extension.
Then there are three more items worth raising. Equity treatment, meaning accelerated vesting or a longer exercise window than the standard ninety days. The reference and the wording of any internal announcement, which cost nothing and matter for months. And the non-compete and non-solicit terms, which are increasingly negotiable and occasionally unenforceable depending on your state.
Why the first offer is rarely final
Severance is almost always delivered as though it were a fixed policy. It is a proposal, and the framing is a negotiating posture rather than a description of anybody’s authority. The person in the room is following a script.
That person frequently has authority to adjust the non-cash terms even where the cash figure is genuinely fixed by a formula. Those two things get presented together as though they were equally immovable, and they are not. Separating those two categories is most of the work here.
Asking is normal, expected in many organizations, and carries almost no risk. Offers are not typically withdrawn because somebody asked a question about them. Not asking is by far the more common mistake and it is the expensive one.
Where your leverage actually comes from
Leverage comes from anything that makes the release genuinely valuable to the employer. A plausible legal claim of any kind counts here. Membership of a protected group in a selection that looks patterned. Knowledge of something sensitive, or simply being somebody whose cooperation during a transition they need.
None of that requires threatening anything or even mentioning it directly. Both sides generally understand what is being bought without anybody saying so. The conversation is more productive when it stays calm and specific.
The group age disclosure, if you are forty or over, is where a pattern would be visible. Reading it before you respond is the cheapest possible way to understand your own position. Most people sign the agreement without ever opening it.
Take the time you are given
If you are forty or over, federal law gives you at least twenty-one days to consider an agreement waiving age claims. In a group termination that becomes forty-five days. There is also a seven-day period to revoke after signing, and that one cannot be waived under any circumstances.
Do not sign anything while you are still in the room. Nobody reasonable expects it, the actual deadline is far longer than the meeting implies, and the urgency in the air is not a legal fact. Say that you will review it, and then leave the meeting.
Almost every regret in this area comes from signing quickly. The document will still be there tomorrow and so will the offer. This is general information rather than legal advice, and an employment lawyer will review a severance agreement quickly and often at no cost for the initial assessment.
How to ask, in practice
Ask in writing, after the meeting has finished, and only once. Thank them properly, say you are reviewing the agreement, and ask whether there is flexibility on two or three specific items. Name the items rather than asking for more generally.
Specific requests get answered and vague ones get declined. Asking whether the separation date could move to the fifteenth so a tranche vests is a question somebody can simply say yes to. Asking whether this is the best they can do is a question that invites the word yes.
Rank your requests privately before you send anything. If you win the first and lose the others, that is a good outcome you should recognize as one rather than pushing further. Knowing your own order prevents you spending goodwill on the least valuable item.
The one thing worth paying a lawyer for
A review before signing is worth the fee, particularly where the agreement contains a non-compete, a broad non-disparagement clause, or terms about cooperation in future proceedings. Those three carry consequences long after the money is spent. A clause you did not notice is still a clause you signed.
Most employment lawyers assess a severance agreement quickly and many do the initial look at no cost. Against a document that binds you for a year or more, that is comfortably the cheapest step in the whole process. An hour of review against a year of restriction is not a close call.
Bring the group disclosure with you if you received one. It is the piece a lawyer can read fastest and the piece most likely to change their advice. Nothing else in the envelope carries as much information for as little reading.
Common questions
Is severance required by law?
Not federally. Only a contract, a written policy, an ERISA plan or a state mini-WARN law creates an obligation.
What is the usual amount?
One to two weeks of pay per year of service, often with a floor and a cap. It is convention rather than entitlement.
What am I being paid for?
The release of claims. That is the reason a discretionary payment exists, and it is what gives you something to negotiate with.
What is most negotiable?
The non-cash items — continued health coverage, the termination date, how the separation is described, outplacement and unused leave.
Why won't they change the formula?
In a group layoff, consistency protects the employer legally. Individual variation is easier outside the formula.
Am I entitled to severance?
Not under federal law, and not under state law except New Jersey, which mandates it by years of service in covered mass layoffs. It is a contract, not an entitlement.
What is the employer paying for?
A release of claims. That is why there is anything to negotiate, and why offer sizes reflect the employer's desire for certainty as much as your tenure.
What besides money is negotiable?
The separation date, continued health coverage, equity treatment and the exercise window, agreed reference wording, and non-compete terms.