Employees offered a severance package from their employer normally have the same reaction: the severance payment offered is not enough to realistically transition the terminated employee to comparable subsequent employment. The result? The very first question most employees ask is:
Can I significantly increase the severance payment offer?
The answer to that question is sometimes no, but more often, yes. Many employers are willing to negotiate the severance payment, especially when handled strategically. But make no mistake: successful severance negotiation is never easy. They require legal insight, timing, and the ability to frame your story in a way that creates leverage.
I’m Matt Ruggles, and I’ve spent the last 30 years practicing employment law in California, with a large part of that time focused on negotiating severance agreements for employees who’ve been let go. I’ve handled hundreds of these negotiations across every industry and job level, and I’ve learned what actually works when trying to increase a severance offer.
I wrote this blog to give California employees examples of what successful severance negotiations look like and why the right strategy matters. The following examples are based on real outcomes and should help you understand how these deals come together, and what makes them effective.
Why Successful Severance Negotiation Is an Uphill Battle
The terminated employee is in a fundamentally weak position. They’ve just lost their job and the steady income that came with it. They now need money to maintain their standard of living, but they don’t have the financial or legal firepower that their employer does. It’s not a level playing field and that’s exactly why strategic negotiation, backed by facts and law, becomes essential.
Group Layoffs vs. Individual Terminations: Know the Difference
In some situations, increasing a severance payment is very difficult, if not impossible. The most common roadblock? A group layoff. When multiple employees are let go at once, employers usually apply a severance formula based on objective criteria, typically one week or one month of pay for every year of service. That formula helps insulate the employer from claims of discrimination or favoritism. It also leaves very little room to negotiate.
You can usually tell if you’re part of a group layoff by looking at the ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) language in the severance agreement. For employees age 40 and older, an individual termination must include a 21-day review period and a 7-day revocation period. But if the agreement gives you 45 days to review, it’s probably a group layoff and your odds of improving the severance offer are slim.
If you’re not sure whether it’s even worth trying to negotiate your severance, start with this: Should I Attempt to Negotiate My Severance Offer?
When Individual Terminations Create Opportunity for Successful Severance Negotiation
Fortunately, most severance situations do not involve group layoffs. Most are individual terminations and that’s where you have room to negotiate. In individual terminations, the outcome depends on three key factors:
Factor #1: Problematic Termination Facts
The circumstances of your termination matter. Employers get nervous when the facts suggest a potential legal violation such as retaliation, discrimination, or whistleblower issues. If your firing followed a complaint, medical leave, or a request for accommodation, those facts can shift the leverage in your favor. The stronger the factual basis for a potential claim, the more motivated the employer may be to offer more severance to avoid legal exposure.
Factor #2: A Reasonable Ask
Your proposal has to be grounded in reality. Ask for too much and you risk getting shut down. Ask for too little and you leave money on the table. The sweet spot is a severance amount that meaningfully improves your position but doesn’t provoke a defensive or dismissive response. A well-reasoned ask, tied to tenure, compensation history, and the potential value of legal claims, makes it easier for the employer to say yes.
If you’re trying to figure out what your severance package should be worth, read my blog: Severance Pay Demand: How to Calculate Effectively.
Factor #3: Legal Leverage Under California Law
You need to connect the dots between the facts and the law. California has some of the strongest employee protections in the country, especially around retaliation, discrimination, wage issues, and medical leave. When you can clearly articulate how your situation may implicate those laws, you create legal risk for the employer. That risk becomes your leverage, and often, the reason they agree to pay more.
To understand how to turn your employer’s legal risk into negotiating power, read my blog: How to Use Leverage in Severance Negotiation.
What Successful Severance Negotiation Actually Look Like
When it comes to severance, most employees have no idea what’s possible because employers rarely advertise what they’re willing to do. The truth is, successful severance negotiations don’t follow a script. They’re shaped by leverage, timing, and the specific facts of the termination.
Below are five real-world examples of severance negotiations we’ve handled at the Ruggles Law Firm. Each one highlights a different scenario, and a different strategy, for increasing the value of a severance agreement. Whether you’re an executive, a long-term employee, or someone recently let go after raising concerns at work, these examples show how the right approach can lead to a far better outcome.
Executive Terminated for “Not Being a Good Fit”
A C-suite marketing executive at a major tech company was called into a Friday meeting and told she was “no longer a good fit for the leadership team.” She had no history of performance issues, no prior write-ups, and had received strong evaluations in recent years. The explanation was vague, which is often a red flag in California employment law.
The company offered her three months of severance – standard for executives at her level, they claimed – and presented it as non-negotiable. But she had worked there nearly a decade, helped lead the company through a period of rapid growth, and was instrumental in several high-profile campaigns that boosted revenue. More importantly, she was the only woman on the senior leadership team and she had previously raised concerns about gender disparities in promotions and pay.
We reviewed the timing and facts and saw potential leverage. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits discrimination and retaliation based on gender. While we didn’t threaten to file a claim, we laid out a clear narrative: her prior complaints, her stellar record, and the suspicious timing of her termination could all support a gender discrimination claim if the matter escalated.
That changed the tone of the negotiation. The employer ultimately agreed to increase the severance package to nine months of base salary, provide full COBRA reimbursement for health benefits, and include executive outplacement services. The agreement also included a mutual non-disparagement clause and a neutral reference, terms that protected her reputation while she searched for her next role.
Takeaway: If you’re a California executive with a long tenure and a clean record, and you’re being terminated without a clear reason, especially after raising concerns about equity or workplace issues, you may have more leverage than you think. A vague explanation like “not a good fit” often signals a situation worth examining more closely.
Long-Term Employee Let Go Because “Company Is Going in a Different Direction”
A mid-level operations manager with 18 years of dedicated service was called into an unexpected meeting and told the company was “moving in a new direction.” That was the full explanation—no warning, no performance concerns, no prior disciplinary history. Just a four-week severance offer and a request to sign quickly.
We started by reviewing her employment record. It showed consistent performance, promotions over time, and positive evaluations. But what stood out was a set of emails from a year earlier, where she had formally raised concerns about workplace safety and the company’s failure to address known hazards. Nothing had come of those complaints at the time but now, with her termination coming out of the blue, those facts became highly relevant.
Under California law, employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise good-faith complaints about health and safety conditions. We didn’t allege retaliation outright, but we laid out the timeline and flagged the potential legal risk to the employer. The point wasn’t to escalate, it was to show that this wasn’t a clean termination.
Once that legal leverage was made clear, the tone of the negotiation shifted. We were able to push the severance from a mere four weeks to six months of salary, along with a written agreement to provide a neutral reference, critical for someone with nearly two decades at one company.
Takeaway: If you’ve been with your employer for many years and are suddenly let go without explanation, it’s worth looking closely at your recent history. If you’ve made internal complaints, especially related to safety, legal compliance, or employee rights, those facts may create leverage to significantly improve your severance package.
Software Engineer Fired After Making an Internal Complaint
A high-performing software engineer at a mid-sized tech company filed an internal complaint with HR after her manager repeatedly made inappropriate and demeaning comments during team meetings. She documented the incidents, followed company policy, and expected HR to handle the issue.
Instead, a month later, she was placed on a performance improvement plan (a PIP she had no warning about) and was terminated shortly after. The company offered her four weeks of severance, claiming the termination was “performance-based.”
We reviewed her timeline and quickly spotted the problem: she had a spotless record before filing her complaint. No warnings, no prior reviews indicating poor performance, just a sudden pivot after she spoke up. In California, that kind of retaliation is not just unethical, it’s illegal. Under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees for complaining about harassment or discrimination, even internally.
We laid out the facts in a written response: the complaint, the timing, and the lack of any performance history to justify the PIP or termination. We didn’t have to threaten litigation, we just had to show that the timeline created legal exposure the company couldn’t afford to ignore.
The result: the employer increased the severance offer from four weeks to five months of salary, removed the performance plan from her personnel file, and agreed to provide a neutral reference.
Takeaway: If you were fired shortly after filing a workplace complaint, especially one involving harassment or discrimination, California law may be on your side. Retaliation doesn’t need to be blatant to be unlawful, and even a standard severance offer can often be improved when the facts raise legal concerns.
Sales Employee Fired Over Disputed Commission Chargebacks
A senior account executive at a commercial services company was fired after a high-dollar client deal collapsed. The employer claimed he owed back the commission he had already been paid calling it an “advance” and deducting it from his final paycheck. They offered no severance, just a notice of termination and a net-zero final paystub.
He came to us frustrated and confused. He believed the commission had already been earned under the company’s own compensation plan. We asked to see the plan and found exactly what we were looking for: vague, inconsistent language that didn’t clearly define when commissions were earned versus advanced. That distinction matters in California.
Under California Labor Code §221, employers are prohibited from making deductions from earned wages unless the deductions are expressly authorized by law. If the commission was “earned,” the company couldn’t claw it back. And if they deducted it without legal justification, they may have violated wage laws, something that carries penalties well beyond the original amount.
We didn’t need to file a lawsuit. We sent a demand letter laying out the legal issues, quoting directly from their own compensation plan, and pointing to the wage deduction rules under California law. We made it clear that if the matter wasn’t resolved quickly, the company would be defending a wage claim worth far more than the disputed amount.
They reversed the deduction and agreed to pay him three months’ severance in exchange for a full release of claims. He took the deal and walked away without a black mark on his record or his wallet.
Takeaway: If you work in sales and your employer is trying to claw back commissions after terminating you, don’t assume they’re right. California law places strict limits on when and how employers can deduct pay. If the commission was earned, it’s yours and if they try to take it back, you may have a strong claim and real leverage to negotiate a better exit.
Human Resources Manager Terminated After Advocating for an Employee
A human resources manager at a mid-sized healthcare company was terminated just three weeks after she pushed senior leadership to conduct a proper investigation into a sexual misconduct complaint. She had flagged procedural violations, urged compliance with the company’s own internal policies, and insisted that the complaint be taken seriously. Her insistence was met with silence and ultimately termination of her employment.
The company gave her a generic termination letter and offered two months of severance. No explanation, no acknowledgment of her role in handling the misconduct complaint, just a boilerplate exit package.
We immediately focused on her unique position. As an HR professional, her job was to enforce internal policy and ensure compliance with employment law. Terminating her so soon after she fulfilled those duties raised a clear retaliation concern. Under California law, employees are protected from retaliation when they report or refuse to participate in violations of law including HR professionals tasked with enforcing compliance. California’s whistleblower protections don’t just cover complaints to outside agencies; they also apply to internal reporting.
We laid out the timeline and flagged the legal risk in a structured, non-combative demand. The goal wasn’t litigation, it was to show the company that pushing back could cost them more than resolving the issue now.
After two rounds of negotiation, the employer increased the severance to five months, agreed to pay for six months of COBRA health coverage, and provided a positive letter of recommendation. Just as important, the company agreed to omit any reference to the misconduct investigation from her personnel file.
Takeaway: If you work in HR and are terminated after doing your job, particularly when your duties involve reporting misconduct or enforcing compliance, you may be protected under California’s whistleblower laws. These protections give you real leverage, even if you never file a formal complaint.
For an overview of effective severance negotiation, read my blog: Effective Severance Agreement Negotiation.
If you’re going to attempt to negotiate your own severance, read this blog first because it covers the most common mistakes employees make when they try to do it without a lawyer: 7 Employee Mistakes That Ruin Severance Negotiations.
Final Thoughts from Matt Ruggles About Successful Severance Negotiation
In most cases, you don’t get a second chance to negotiate a severance agreement. That’s why it’s critical to get it right the first time.
If your gut tells you the offer is unfair or incomplete, you’re probably right. In my 30 years of practice, I’ve seen too many employees leave money, benefits, and legal claims on the table because they didn’t understand what they were signing or thought they had no room to push back.
The point of this blog isn’t to turn every employee into a litigator. It’s to show that with the right strategy, and a clear understanding of California law, severance negotiations can shift the balance of power back toward the employee. If your termination feels rushed, vague, or suspicious, it’s time to take a closer look. And if you need help doing that, that’s exactly what we do.
Contact the Ruggles Law Firm at 916-758-8058 to Evaluate Your Potential Lawsuit
Matt Ruggles has a thorough understanding of California employment laws and decades of practical experience litigating employment law claims in California state and federal courts. Using all of his knowledge and experience, Matt and his team can quickly evaluate your potential claim and give you realistic advice on what you can expect if you sue your former employer.
Contact the Ruggles Law Firm at 916-758-8058 for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Blog posts are not legal advice and are for information purposes only. Contact the Ruggles Law Firm for consideration of your individual circumstances.
