How the severance math works
This tool prices two different things and adds them, because that is exactly how separation conversations are priced in practice:
Baseline = Weekly Comp × (Tenure × Weeks/Year) × Employment Basis
Claim Uplift = Weekly Comp × 4.33 × min(Claim Months, Weeks‑to‑Job)
Target = Baseline + Claim Uplift (±15% negotiation band)
Baseline is market convention: roughly two to four weeks of total compensation per year of service, adjusted for whether a contract makes the promise enforceable. Claim uplift is the value of the leverage a potential legal claim adds — priced in months of compensation, but deliberately capped at your expected re-employment window, because claim settlements are priced against forward-looking wage loss: what you will actually be out before a comparable job materializes. Burning 52 weeks of settlement value on a 12-week job search is not how claims price, and the model refuses to pretend otherwise.
The honest part nobody's calculator tells you
Most terminations are legal. At-will employment means your employer can fire you for a bad reason, a wrong reason, or no reason at all — as long as it isn't a prohibited reason. Unfairness, favoritism, and personality conflicts are not unlawful. If your situation is a lawful at-will termination with no claim, this model will tell you: baseline weeks, no uplift, and the number comes out near zero — not because the tool failed, but because that is the honest answer. The leverage cases are specific: discrimination on a protected basis, retaliation for protected activity, refusal to do something illegal, or a written contract the employer broke.
What converts a firing into a claim
- Discrimination: termination tied to a protected characteristic — race, sex, age (40+), disability, pregnancy, religion, national origin — under Title VII, the ADEA, the ADA, and state analogs. Deadlines to charge the EEOC run 180–300 days.
- Retaliation: firing shortly after protected activity — reporting harassment, filing a wage complaint, requesting FMLA leave, whistleblowing. Timing is the evidence pattern employers walk into most often.
- Contract breach: a written offer letter or employment contract with a term, a for-cause clause, or a severance promise that was broken.
- Public-policy violations: termination for refusing illegal conduct, or for exercising a statutory right (jury duty, voting, wage claims).
The release you sign is the real transaction
Every severance agreement is the same exchange underneath: money now, in return for a full legal release forever. Companies price offers against what the released claims would cost them — which is why an attorney's evaluation is the single highest-leverage step here, and why it must happen before signature. Two structural rules worth knowing cold: OWBPA timing (if you're 40+, you get 21 days to consider an age-waiver agreement and 7 days to revoke after signing — taking the time costs nothing), and negotiation posture (initial offers move; items on the table include pay continuation, COBRA subsidies, payout of accrued PTO, a positive-reference clause, and neutral language on the reason for separation).
Deadlines that quietly kill claims
| Claim type | Typical deadline | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| EEOC discrimination charge | 180–300 days | Depends on state; missing it usually ends the federal claim. |
| Retaliation (varies) | Often 1–3 years | Statute-specific; whistleblower statutes differ widely. |
| Contract breach | State limitations period | Written contracts commonly 3–6 years depending on state. |
| WARN Act (mass layoff) | 60-day notice rule | Applies to covered employers and qualifying layoff sizes. |
"I'll think about it" is the most expensive sentence in employment law. Deadlines are jurisdictional and unforgiving — verify yours before the calendar makes the decision.