severance pay

Severance pay is not the same as termination pay or pay in lieu of notice. The Employment Standards Act gives some people the right to severance pay when they lose their jobs.

You get severance pay only if you’ve worked at least 5 years for your employer and:

• your employer pays wages of at least $2.5 million a year, or
• at least 50 people will be losing their jobs within a 6-month period because the business is being cut back.

The basic rule is that severance pay is one week’s pay for each year you’ve worked for your employer, up to 26 weeks.