How Much Severance Should I Ask For?

Ask for the top of the range for your level. For individual contributors the common US benchmark is one to two weeks of base pay per year of service, usually capped somewhere around 16 to 26 weeks. Managers typically see two to three weeks per year, directors three to four, and VPs four to six, with C-suite packages often quoted in months rather than weeks. If you are being offered the bottom of your level's range, asking for the top of that same range is a modest, defensible request that a manager can approve without escalating. And because no federal law requires severance at all, every part of the package is discretionary, which is exactly why it is negotiable. This is career coaching, not legal advice.

What is a typical severance package in 2026?

There is no legal minimum in the United States. The Department of Labor is explicit that severance pay is a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee, not a requirement. What exists instead is a set of market norms that most HR departments plan against:

Industry moves these numbers as much as level does. Technology, finance, and consulting generally pay above the medians. Retail, hospitality, and small employers often pay below them, or offer nothing. Before you decide your offer is unfair, benchmark it against your own industry rather than against a headline package you read about somewhere else.

How do I calculate what my severance should be?

Convert everything into weeks, because that is the unit the company is thinking in. Take the total cash being offered, divide by your weekly base pay, and you have your number of weeks. Then divide that by your years of service. If you are an individual contributor with eight years of service and the offer works out to four weeks total, that is half a week per year, well under the norm. If it works out to twelve weeks, you are at 1.5 weeks per year, which is squarely inside the market range and a harder case to argue.

That arithmetic matters because it changes what you can say. "This feels low" invites a sympathetic no. "This works out to half a week per year of service, and the norm for my level is one to two" is a factual statement someone in HR can take to an approver. Specific, benchmarked asks get approved. General ones get the answer that was already budgeted.

What else can I ask for besides more money?

This is where most of the winnable value sits, because these items often come from a different budget than cash severance and cost the company far less:

• Employer-paid health coverage. COBRA continuation is available to you by law, but who pays the premium is negotiable. Three to six months of employer-paid premiums is a common and frequently granted ask.
• The bonus you already earned. Many plans require you to be employed on the payout date. If the performance period is already complete and the work was delivered, ask for it. This is one of the strongest fairness arguments available.
• Equity. Unvested shares usually cancel at termination. Ask for acceleration of the next vest, or for an extended post-termination exercise window, which matters enormously if you hold options you cannot afford to exercise in 90 days.
• Reference and departure language. Agree the exact wording, who will say it, and how the departure gets described internally. It costs the company nothing and it protects your next search.
• The non-compete and non-disparagement clauses. Ask to narrow the scope and duration of any restriction on where you can work next, and ask that non-disparagement be mutual rather than binding only you.
• Outplacement. If the package includes career services you will not use, ask for the cash equivalent instead.

How long do I have to decide?

If you are 40 or older and the agreement asks you to waive age-discrimination claims, federal law under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act generally requires the employer to give you at least 21 days to consider it, or 45 days if the termination is part of a group layoff, plus a 7-day window to revoke after you sign. That revocation period cannot be waived by either side. If the offer is materially changed during negotiation, the consideration clock generally restarts.

Under 40, there is no federal timeline, and the deadline is whatever the employer sets. That deadline is itself negotiable. Asking for another week to review a legal document is a normal request and is rarely refused.

Will asking for more severance get the offer pulled?

It is uncommon when the ask is professional and specific. Remember what is actually happening: the company is buying a signed release of legal claims from you, and that release has real value to them. A calm, written counter is the other half of a transaction they started. What creates risk is tone, not the request. Threatening litigation you have no intention of pursuing, making accusations, or going silent past the deadline all cause problems. Being warm, brief, and specific does not.

Should I get a lawyer to look at it?

At least once, yes. An employment attorney will read the release, the restrictive covenants, and any clawback for a flat fee, and can tell you within an hour whether you are signing away a claim worth more than the package. That is especially worth doing if you raised a complaint before the termination, if you are in a protected class and the selection looks questionable, or if the non-compete would keep you out of your own field. The fee is small next to a package measured in months of pay.

Plan around the after-tax number

Severance is wages. It gets payroll taxes withheld, and a lump sum is typically withheld at the flat federal supplemental rate rather than your normal rate, so the deposit is smaller than the headline. Budget from what actually lands, not from what the agreement says. It also pays to know how the payment interacts with your unemployment claim, since some states treat severance as wages that delay benefits for the weeks it covers while others do not count a lump sum at all. Check your state agency's rules before you agree to a payment structure, and if the severance lands in a different tax year than most of your income, it is worth looking at how that changes what you owe when you actually file the return rather than discovering it in April.

The counter that works

Keep it to one email, three asks, and a clear signal that you intend to sign. Something like: thank you for the time to review this; after benchmarking, I would like to discuss the severance weeks, COBRA coverage for six months, and payment of the bonus for a period that is already complete; I am ready to sign once these are addressed. Nothing more dramatic than that is required, and anything more dramatic usually hurts.

If you want the number benchmarked and the message drafted for you, that is what Counteroffer does. It takes the offer, compares it to what is typical for your level and tenure, picks the asks with the best odds, and writes the email. See how to negotiate a severance package, or read the companion piece on how to respond to a lowball offer if you are already interviewing again. This is educational career information, not legal, tax, or financial advice, and an employment attorney should review any agreement before you sign it.