Your 60-second estimate — no email required
That's a ballpark from a standard formula. The full assessment analyses your actual offer — after-tax math, the red flags in your paperwork, and three negotiation angles — and it's free to begin.
SeveranceCalc is operated by Severance Ledger's publisher.
The full assessment
The estimate is the start. The assessment is the full picture.
The estimate answers one question: what does a standard formula say your severance is worth? SeveranceCalc's 20-question assessment answers the harder ones — how your specific package compares, what's missing from it, and what you could reasonably raise before the paperwork is final.
A 0–100 Severance Score that places your offer — so “is this fair?” stops being a guess.
The assessment benchmarks your package against typical severance for your tenure, level, and situation, and returns a single score plus the fair-value range behind it.
- Score 0–100 with the fair-value range behind it
- Built on documented formulas, not guesswork
- Specific to your inputs, not a generic average
Red flags surfaced while you can still ask about them — not after you've signed.
Severance agreements are written by the employer's lawyers. The assessment flags the items in yours that most often deserve a closer read, so nothing important gets waved through on a deadline.
- Flags specific to your offer's terms
- Plain-language notes on why each item matters
- A concrete list to take to a licensed attorney if you choose to
Three negotiation angles matched to your situation — so any ask you make is grounded in data.
Whether an employer moves is never guaranteed — but the difference between a considered ask and a hopeful one is preparation. The report maps three angles drawn from your answers, with the reasoning behind each.
- Angles specific to your tenure, role, and offer
- The benchmark data that supports each one
- Yours to use, adapt, or take to counsel
SeveranceCalc is operated by Severance Ledger's publisher.
From the Severance Formula Database ‹ Verified June 13, 2026
The benchmarks aren't secret. We document them.
Every figure below is drawn from SEC filings, CEO layoff memos, or cited public reporting — the same sourcing standard behind our articles.
16 + 2
Google and Meta pay 16 weeks base + 2 weeks per year of service; Microsoft's 2026 program runs four weeks lighter at 12 + 2. Finance accrues roughly 2 weeks per year from a thinner floor.
52 wks
The most common hard ceiling: the cap at JPMorgan (also $400,000) and Citigroup, with 52-week ceilings reported at Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
1 vs 6
The widest gap is health coverage: the Big Tech memos fund 6 months of COBRA; Oracle's 2026 package funds 1; Citigroup subsidizes none.
15 employers documented · 2 formulas traced to SEC filings · Browse the full database ›
Recent analysis
Full archive ›- state severance tax Severance Tax Rate in New Jersey 2026: The TDI and FLI Wrinkle Most Guides Miss New Jersey withholds federal supplemental tax plus graduated state income tax on severance, then adds two capped payroll deductions most guides ignore: Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance. Whether they hit your payout turns entirely on timing and how much you have already earned this year.
- state severance tax Severance Tax Rate in North Carolina 2026: How the Flat 3.99% Rate Actually Withholds North Carolina's flat 3.99% income tax makes severance withholding refreshingly predictable, but the state's payroll formula skims 4.09%, and separation pay still delays unemployment week-for-week. Here is the flat-rate math, a Charlotte worked example, and why the state reconciliation is nearly a wash.
- state severance tax Severance Tax Rate in California 2026: The 6.6% Rate, the 10.23% Trap, and the SDI Question California applies a 6.6% state supplemental rate to severance — not the 10.23% rate it uses for bonuses and stock options — on top of the federal 22%. Whether the 1.3% SDI deduction applies turns on one clause of the Unemployment Insurance Code, and severance never reduces a California unemployment check.
- comparison Big Tech vs Finance Severance Compared 2026 — Who Actually Pays More? Big Tech pays more in absolute cash and faster — Meta, Google, Microsoft hit 16+2 formulas at IC and manager levels. Finance pays more for senior staff via deferred comp continuation. Here's the actual side-by-side at $200K salary and 8 years tenure.
- severance and pip Severance After a PIP 2026: What's Owed When the Documentation Is Built Performance Improvement Plans are often documentation for a separation that's already been decided. Whether severance is paid afterward depends on the line between performance termination and for-cause termination, OWBPA waiver rules for workers 40+, and whether the PIP itself stands up to scrutiny.
- severance and retirement 401(k) Rollover Traps After a Layoff 2026: Edge Cases That Cost Five Figures An indirect rollover turns a $100,000 401(k) into an $80,000 check and a 60-day deadline. A catalogue of the separation mistakes that cost five figures: the 20% withholding shortfall, the one-per-year rule, the SIMPLE-IRA 25% penalty, forfeited Rule of 55 access, and the 457(b) trap.
- severance and retirement Severance and Social Security 2026: Timing, Earnings Test, and SSDI Interaction Severance pay interacts with Social Security in three different ways depending on whether you're collecting retirement benefits, applying for SSDI, or simply paying into the system. Here's how the rules apply at each stage and where the timing actually matters.
- severance tax mechanics Withheld at 22%, Taxed at 32%: The Severance Reconciliation Gap in 2026 The flat 22% federal withholding on severance under-collects for everyone above the 22% bracket — often $5,000 to $30,000 due at filing. The gap in dollars, the Form 1040-ES safe harbors that switch off the underpayment penalty, and the installment timing that moves the $1 million threshold.
- state severance tax Severance Tax Rate in Texas 2026: No State Income Tax Doesn't Mean No Tax Texas has no state income tax, but Texas severance is still subject to federal supplemental withholding, FICA, and the state's specific rules for how severance interacts with unemployment claims. Here's the actual math and the source-state issue that catches remote workers.
- federal and public sector Federal Severance Package 2026: VSIP, VERA, Fork in the Road, and 5 USC 5595 Federal employees have four separate paths off the federal payroll in 2026: VSIP buyout (capped at $25K, proposed raise to 6 months pay), VERA early retirement, the Fork in the Road deferred resignation, and standard 5 USC 5595 severance pay. Here's what each pays and the decision math for 150K+ takers.
- tech severance 2026 Oracle Severance Package 2026: What 4 Weeks + 1/Yr Actually Pays by Tenure Oracle's 2026 formula — 4 weeks of base for year one plus 1 week per additional year, capped at 26 — pays roughly 8 weeks at 5 years and hits the ceiling at 23. Full tenure tables, the Google/Meta/Microsoft benchmark gap, the RSU forfeiture math, and the OWBPA inputs that drive negotiation.
- state severance tax Severance Tax Rate in New York 2026: The Stacked Withholding Decoded New York stacks state, city, and federal supplemental withholding on severance, producing combined rates near 40% for typical white-collar separations. Here's how the math actually works, what NYC residency triggers, and what reconciles at tax-filing time.
Before you start
Questions before you start
Is the assessment really free to start?
Yes. You answer 20 questions and enter an email to begin; you're only asked to pay once you've seen what your personalised report contains. No card to start, and nothing is billed automatically.
Is this legal advice?
No. Severance Ledger's articles and SeveranceCalc's assessment are educational analysis — benchmarks, formulas, and documented terms. For advice on your specific agreement, consult a licensed attorney in your state; the assessment's red-flag list gives you concrete questions to bring.
Who runs SeveranceCalc?
We do — Severance Ledger and SeveranceCalc.com are operated by the same publisher. When we point you there, we're recommending our own product, and we'd rather say so plainly than dress it up as an independent endorsement. Our editorial coverage stands on its cited sources either way. About the publisher ›
Where do the benchmark numbers come from?
SEC filings, CEO layoff memos, and cited public reporting — never invented figures. The methodology, sourcing tiers, and full company table are public in our Severance Formula Database.
My employer isn't in your database — is the assessment still useful?
Yes. The database documents 15 major employers, but the assessment benchmarks your offer against typical packages for your tenure, level, and situation — it doesn't require your employer to be on the list.
The publication
Severance Ledger publishes under three editorial desks — Companies & Industries, Tax & Withholding, and Employment Law. Every article is human-reviewed before publication and cites primary sources: IRS publications, SEC filings, state labor codes, court records.
Editorial process › Corrections › About ›
Read the analysis, then check your own numbers. The personalised assessment is free to begin.
SeveranceCalc is operated by Severance Ledger's publisher.