Severance Pay Calculator

A year has 52 weeks but only 12 months, and 52 divided by 12 is approximately 4.33 -- using 4.33 as the divisor gives a more accurate weekly figure than dividing by a flat 4, which would overstate weekly pay by about 8% since most months contain more than 4 full weeks. This matters directly for the final severance total, since Weekly Salary feeds straight into the Severance Pay calculation.

There's no single legal standard in most of the U.S. -- common informal benchmarks range from 1 week per year of service (a minimal policy) to 2 weeks per year (a more generous, common benchmark), with some executive or long-tenure packages offering more. The scenario comparison chart on this calculator shows your result under 1, 2, and 3 weeks-per-year policies specifically so you can gauge where an actual offer sits within that typical range.

Yes -- Severance Pay is directly proportional to Monthly Salary through the Weekly Salary conversion, so raising Monthly Salary always raises the calculated severance amount, holding Years of Service and Weeks of Pay Per Year constant. Monthly Salary has no effect on Weeks of Pay, which depends purely on tenure and the policy rate.

Some severance packages use a flat lump sum, a formula based on job level or department rather than tenure, or include additional components like COBRA subsidies, accrued PTO payout, or extended benefits that this calculator does not model -- it only estimates the common weeks-per-year-of-service structure. Always compare a calculated estimate against the actual written severance agreement or company policy, since real packages frequently include terms beyond a simple salary multiple.