The short answer
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires private employers with 100 or more employees to give at least 60 calendar days' written notice before a plant closing that causes job losses for 50 or more employees at a site, or a mass layoff that affects 500 or more employees at a site, or 50 to 499 if they make up at least a third of the site's workforce. Notice goes to each affected worker or their union, the state dislocated worker unit and the local government. Shorter notice is allowed only in narrow cases, such as a sudden, unforeseeable business loss or a natural disaster. An employer that fails to give required notice can owe each affected employee back pay and benefits for up to 60 days. Many states have their own laws with broader coverage or longer notice. Whatever the notice, file for unemployment as soon as your job ends.
Does your layoff count?
WARN generally covers private employers, including nonprofits, with 100 or more full-time employees, or with 100 or more employees who together work at least 4,000 hours a week, not counting overtime. Federal, state and local governments are not covered. Two kinds of event require 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 at a site that causes an employment loss 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. Part-time workers, those averaging fewer than 20 hours a week or employed fewer than six of the last 12 months, are not counted toward the thresholds, but they are entitled to notice if they lose their jobs in a covered event.
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, so a company cannot avoid notice by spreading cuts into small batches.
Example (hypothetical): two rounds of cuts
A distribution center has 240 full-time workers. In one month the company lays off 60, and six weeks later another 30. Neither group alone is a third of the site's workforce, but the 90 workers laid off within 90 days are 37.5 percent of it. Unless the company can show the two cuts had separate causes, they count together as a mass layoff that required 60 days' notice.
What the notice must tell you
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. Keep it: the dates in it matter for everything that follows. If the expected date changes, the employer may need to give additional notice, and a postponement of less than 60 days generally requires notice as soon as the new date is known.
Your 60 days, and the deadlines after them
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| The week the notice arrives | Ask HR in writing about your final paycheck, unused vacation, severance, retirement plans and the date coverage ends |
| Before your last day | Contact your state's rapid response team or an American Job Center about dislocated worker services and training |
| The week your job ends | File for unemployment; you usually cannot file while still working full time |
| Within 60 days of losing job-based coverage | Enroll in a Marketplace plan, if you choose one over COBRA |
| Within 60 days of your COBRA election notice | Elect COBRA, if you choose to keep your employer's plan |
| Before signing any severance agreement | Read the release of claims; it can give up a WARN claim |
Unemployment comes first in importance. Waiting until severance runs out to file can cost weeks of benefits, and whether severance or pay in lieu of notice delays benefits depends on state law, so report it when you file. Our unemployment guide explains how claims work, and the unemployment calculator estimates a weekly benefit from your wages so you can plan.
For health coverage, COBRA usually lets you keep your employer's plan for up to 18 months at full cost, while losing job-based coverage opens a special enrollment period for a Marketplace plan, often cheaper with a premium tax credit once income drops; see our guide to special enrollment periods. If money will be tight, check whether your household could qualify for SNAP.
When less notice is allowed
- 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.
If no notice came
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. The law sets no filing deadline of its own; courts borrow one from state law, which varies, so do not wait. If pay itself goes missing, our guide to wage claims explains what to do.
State 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, New Jersey requires 90 days' notice and, for covered layoffs, severance pay, and California's law reaches employers with 75 or more employees and layoffs of 50 or more workers regardless of the share of the workforce. Your state labor department can tell you what applies where you work.
Questions about notice and pay
Does the WARN Act require severance pay?
No. Federal WARN requires notice, not severance. Some state laws, such as New Jersey's, require severance for covered layoffs, and many employers offer it voluntarily, often in exchange for a release of claims.
Can my employer pay me instead of giving 60 days' notice?
Paying wages and benefits for the notice period does not count as notice, but it reduces what the employer would owe for the violation, often to nothing. Read any agreement that comes with the payment before you sign it.
Do remote workers count toward a layoff?
Generally yes. A worker who does not report to a single site is usually counted at the site they are assigned to, report to or are paid from, so remote employees can be part of a covered closing or mass layoff there.
Where the facts decide
WARN has detailed definitions of employer, site and employment loss, and cases turn on the facts; many layoffs fall outside it. This is general information and not legal advice. An employment lawyer or legal aid office can assess a specific layoff.
Official sources
With the notice in hand
Save the notice, write its dates on a calendar along with the deadlines in the table above, and ask your state's dislocated worker unit about training. Then estimate your weekly unemployment benefit to plan your budget.
