Severance pay calculator for Ontario and federal jobs

Severance pay compensates long-serving employees whose job ends. It is separate from notice or termination pay and paid on top of it.

Enter your years and months of service and your regular weekly wages to see the legal minimum.

How it's calculated

Ontario: you need at least 5 years of service and an employer with a payroll of $2.5 million or more (or a closure that ends 50 or more jobs in six months). You get 1 week of regular wages per year of service, counting extra months as a fraction, up to 26 weeks.
Canada Labour Code: after 12 consecutive months you get 2 days of wages per full year of service, or 5 days if that is more.
Days of wages are your weekly wages divided by the days you normally work in a week.

An example

In Ontario, 8 years and 9 months at $1,200 a week gives 8.75 weeks of severance: $10,500.

Frequently asked questions

Do I get severance if I quit?

No. Severance pay is owed when the employer ends the job, not when you resign.

Does BC or Alberta have severance pay?

Their employment standards have compensation for length of service or termination pay instead, which works like notice. Use the termination pay calculator for those provinces.

Is this all I can get?

It is the minimum under employment standards. Your contract may give you more.

Key terms

Severance pay: A lump sum owed to some employees when their job ends, based on years of service.
Regular wages: Your pay for a normal work week, without overtime.