About this tool
Severance pay has no single, standard formula. Whether you're entitled to any severance at all — and if so, how much — depends heavily on the country you work in, your state or province, your industry, your individual employment contract, and your specific company's policy, all of which can vary enormously. In many places there's no general legal requirement to pay severance at all; where laws or common practices do exist, they differ wildly in what they require or merely suggest.
This calculator uses one commonly-cited rule of thumb — a set number of weeks of pay for every year worked — purely as a rough, illustrative starting point. You can adjust the weeks-per-year rate because there is no single correct number, and you can add an optional flat lump sum since many real severance packages include one (often in exchange for signing a release or waiver). Treat the result as a ballpark figure for an informal conversation, never as a legal entitlement — for anything that actually matters, consult an employment lawyer, your HR department, or the text of your employment contract.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the "weeks per year" rate vary so much?
Because there genuinely is no universal legal standard for severance pay — unlike, say, minimum wage, which at least has a specific legally-defined number in most jurisdictions. Severance can be governed by statutory minimums that vary by country/state, collective bargaining agreements, individual employment contracts, company policy that goes beyond any legal minimum, or ad-hoc negotiation at the time of termination (sometimes influenced by tenure, seniority level, reason for termination, or whether you're asked to sign a release of legal claims). This tool's adjustable rate exists specifically so you can plug in whatever number is actually relevant to your situation — from your employee handbook, your contract, or your jurisdiction's specific labor law — rather than treating any single default as universally correct.
Does this account for unused vacation days or other benefits?
No — this calculator ONLY estimates the "weeks of pay per year of service" formula component, described in the disclaimer. Real termination packages often include several genuinely separate elements this tool doesn't attempt to calculate: payout for accrued but unused vacation/PTO (often a legal requirement independent of severance in many places), continuation of health insurance benefits for a period (COBRA-style in the US, or equivalent elsewhere), unvested equity/stock treatment, outplacement services, or other negotiated terms. Add these separately using your own records/documentation rather than expecting this single-formula tool to capture your full compensation package.