📦 Severance Pay Estimator
Estimate a typical severance amount using a common weeks-per-year-of-service formula. Actual severance depends on your employer's policy, contract, and local law — this is an informational estimate only.
The multiplier this models
It is one multiplication, done twice - the tool applies no minimum, no cap and no statutory rule:
severance weeks = years of service × weeks per year of service
severance pay = severance weeks × weekly payFive years at two weeks per year is 10 weeks, and at $1,500 a week that is $15,000 gross. Both years and the multiplier take half-steps, so 5.5 years at 1.5 weeks is 8.3 weeks.
Filling the three boxes
- Weekly pay is your annual salary divided by 52 - $78,000 a year is $1,500 a week - or your hourly rate times your normal weekly hours. Check whether the policy you are working from defines pay as base only or includes commission.
- Weeks per year of service is the part you cannot look up here. It comes from your employer's written policy, your contract, a collective agreement or whatever the offer letter in front of you says. One to two weeks is a common private-sector pattern, not a rule.
- Partial years are prorated straight through: enter 5.5 and you get 5.5 times the multiplier. A real policy may instead round to whole years.
Frequently asked questions
How much severance is 5 years of service?
Under a two-weeks-per-year policy, 10 weeks of pay - $15,000 on a $1,500 weekly wage. Under one week per year it is 5 weeks and $7,500.
What does the estimate leave out?
Accrued unused leave, pay in lieu of notice, a prorated bonus, continued health cover and any statutory entitlement are all outside it, and nothing is deducted for tax. Those items are often worth more than the multiplier itself.
Is severance pay taxable?
It is generally treated as employment income, but how it is withheld, and whether receiving it delays unemployment benefits, differ from one jurisdiction to the next. Confirm both with your own tax authority before you budget the figure.