Layoff Notice: What the WARN Act Requires

1What WARN is for

The WARN Act gives workers time to prepare when a large employer closes a site or lays off many people at once: time to look for a new job, sign up for training, and plan for health coverage and bills. It does not stop layoffs or require severance. It requires notice, and it makes employers pay when they skip it. This guide explains which employers and layoffs are covered, what the notice must say, the exceptions, what you can recover, and what to do once you have a notice in hand.

2Which employers are covered

WARN generally covers private employers, including nonprofits, with 100 or more full-time employees. Part-time workers, meaning those who average fewer than 20 hours a week or have worked fewer than six of the last 12 months, are not counted toward that 100. An employer is also covered if it has 100 or more employees, including part-time workers, who together work at least 4,000 hours a week, not counting overtime.

Federal, state and local governments are not covered. Part-time workers are not counted toward the thresholds, but they are entitled to notice if they lose their jobs in a covered event.

3Which layoffs trigger notice

• A plant closing: shutting down a site, or one or more facilities or operating units within it, that causes an employment loss for 50 or more full-time employees in a 30-day period.
• A mass layoff: a reduction in force, not caused by a plant closing, that causes an employment loss at a site for 500 or more full-time employees, or for 50 to 499 if they make up at least a third of the site's full-time workforce, in a 30-day period.

An employment loss means a termination, other than a discharge for cause, a resignation or a retirement; a layoff longer than six months; or a cut of more than half in your hours in each month of a six-month period.

Smaller job losses at the same site within 90 days are added together if together they reach the thresholds, unless the employer shows they had separate and distinct causes. A company cannot avoid notice by spreading cuts into small batches.

4Who gets notice, when, and what it says

The employer must give at least 60 calendar days' written notice to each affected worker, or to their union representative if they have one, to the state dislocated worker unit, and to the chief elected official of the local government. A notice to an individual worker should say whether the job loss is expected to be permanent or temporary, the expected date of the layoff or closing, whether bumping rights exist, and the name and phone number of a company official to contact.

5Exceptions that allow shorter notice

• A faltering company: for a plant closing only, a company actively seeking money or business that would have avoided the closing, and that reasonably believed notice would have ruined the effort.
• Unforeseeable business circumstances: a sudden, dramatic event outside the employer's control, such as the unexpected loss of a major contract.
• A natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake or storm.

Even then, the employer must give as much notice as it can and explain in writing why the notice is short. Notice is also not required for the closing of a temporary facility or the end of a project when workers were hired knowing the work was temporary, or for certain strikes and lockouts. The exceptions are narrow, and the employer has to prove that one applies.

6If your employer did not give notice

An employer that violates WARN can owe each affected employee back pay and benefits for each day of the violation, up to 60 days, reduced by wages it paid for that period and certain voluntary payments. It can also owe the local government a civil penalty of up to $500 a day. Employees can sue in federal court on their own or as a group, and a court can award attorney's fees to the winning side. The Department of Labor does not enforce WARN, so a lawyer or legal aid office is usually the next step.

7State laws may give you more

Many states have their own mini-WARN laws that cover smaller employers, count layoffs differently or require longer notice. New York, for example, generally requires 90 days' notice from employers with 50 or more full-time employees, and New Jersey requires 90 days' notice and, for covered layoffs, severance pay. Your state labor department can tell you what applies where you work.

8What to do when you get a notice

1. Keep the notice and note the dates. Ask HR about your final paycheck, unused vacation, severance and retirement plans; our guide to wage claims explains what to do if pay goes missing.
2. File for unemployment as soon as your job ends; you cannot usually file while still working full time. Estimate your weekly unemployment benefit to plan, and see our unemployment guide for how claims work.
3. Plan health coverage. COBRA usually lets you keep your employer's plan for up to 18 months at full cost, and losing job-based coverage opens a 60-day window to enroll in a Marketplace plan; see our guide to special enrollment periods.
4. Ask your state about rapid response services and dislocated worker programs at an American Job Center, which can pay for training.
5. If money will be tight, check whether your household could qualify for SNAP once your income drops.

Whether pay in lieu of notice or severance delays unemployment benefits depends on state law, so report it when you file.

9Common mistakes

• Waiting until severance runs out to file for unemployment, which can cost weeks of benefits.
• Signing a severance agreement without reading it. Many include a release of claims, which can give up a WARN claim in exchange for the payment.
• Missing the 60-day deadline to elect COBRA or to enroll in a Marketplace plan.
• Assuming a layoff is too small to matter, when separate cuts within 90 days, or a state law, may require notice.

11What this does not tell you

WARN has detailed definitions of employer, site and employment loss, and cases turn on the facts. Many layoffs fall outside it, and the exceptions are narrow.

This is general information and not legal advice. An employment lawyer or legal aid office can assess a specific layoff.