Federal wage law does not require severance pay: the U.S. Department of Labor says the Fair Labor Standards Act has no severance requirement and that severance is a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee's representative). Some view severance as a formal way of asking a departing worker not to hold a grudge; others see it as a reward for years of service. If you have been laid off from AT&T, what should you do next? The amount can depend on the employer, the employee's position and years of service, but exit packages tend to share some common pieces. Here is what to look for in a severance package if you are leaving AT&T.

What's in a severance package?

A severance package typically includes salary continuation, health benefits, bonuses and outplacement services, according to the workforce consulting firm LHH. Some employers have also addressed unvested stock, as Google and Microsoft said they would in their January 2023 layoffs.

Severance packages can include a mix of the following:

• Financial compensation
• Extension of health care and other benefits
• Bonus payments
• Accelerated or continued vesting of stock
• Outplacement or career transition services

Health coverage has its own federal rule: if the employer normally had 20 or more employees in the prior calendar year, COBRA generally lets an employee who was covered by the employer's group health plan and loses that coverage because of a job loss for reasons other than gross misconduct, and a spouse or dependent child who was on the plan the day before, elect within a set election period to keep group health coverage for a limited time, and the plan may charge up to 102% of the premium.

If your job loss is part of a mass layoff or plant closing covered by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which generally applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees, the company must generally give at least 60 days of written notice. If an employer fails to give the required notice, it may be liable to each affected employee for back pay and benefits for up to 60 days, but for no more than half the number of days the employee was employed by the employer, reduced by wages paid for the period of the violation, any voluntary and unconditional payment the employer was not legally required to make, and certain payments made on the employee's behalf for that period, such as health premiums. Some states have their own notice laws with lower thresholds or longer notice periods; New York's, for example, applies to private employers with 50 or more full-time employees in the state and requires 90 days' notice. Neither the Fair Labor Standards Act nor the WARN Act requires severance pay, but some states do: in covered closings, relocations, transfers of operations or mass layoffs, as each state defines them, New Jersey (since April 2023, for employers with 100 or more employees) requires one week of pay for each full year of employment, and Maine (for eligible employees with at least 3 years of continuous service at a covered establishment, one that employed 100 or more people at any time in the prior 12 months) requires one week's pay for each year of service, with partial pay for a partial year, subject to each state's rules.

How Much Severance Do AT&T Employees Get After a Layoff?

What a laid-off AT&T employee receives depends on which written AT&T severance plan or policy, if any, covers the employee, any union contract or individual agreement that covers the employee, any package AT&T announces for a specific layoff, what those terms say, and the law where the employee works; the AT&T section below lists what public sources show about AT&T. Ask HR or the plan administrator for the written plan or summary plan description that applies to you, and use it to confirm the formula. In LHH's 2024 benchmark survey of U.S. and Canadian employers, the most common method, used by nearly 4 in 10 respondents, set severance by a combination of position and years of service, and only 7% used a flat number of weeks per year of service for all employees.

Are bonuses included in severance packages?

Whether a bonus that is not part of base salary is paid at a layoff depends on the bonus plan, any severance terms the employer offers and state law. Check the written terms of your bonus plan and your state's wage law. You may be able to negotiate, depending on how the bonus is earned and what the plan's written terms say.

Does unvested stock vest in a layoff?

Whether unvested stock vests in a layoff depends on the company's equity plan and any severance terms. In January 2023, Google said it would accelerate at least 16 weeks of stock vesting for affected U.S. employees, while Microsoft said affected benefit-eligible U.S. employees would continue vesting stock awards for six months.

What did laid-off Google and Microsoft employees in the U.S. get in January 2023?

On January 20, 2023, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said the company would cut about 12,000 roles across Alphabet and that in the U.S. it would pay affected employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days). Google said its U.S. severance package would start at 16 weeks of salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, and that it would pay 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time and offer 6 months of health care, job placement services and immigration support. Two days earlier, on January 18, 2023, Microsoft said it would cut 10,000 jobs through the end of the third quarter of its fiscal year 2023 and that affected benefit-eligible U.S. employees would receive above-market severance pay, six months of continued health care coverage, career transition services and 60 days' notice before termination.

Can employees negotiate their severance packages?

You may be able to ask for better terms, especially if you are not part of a large group layoff. Large companies running broad layoffs may be less willing to make individual exceptions, while smaller employers may have more flexibility. If the offer asks you to sign a release of claims by a deadline, consider having an employment attorney review it before you respond. Draw on the goodwill you have built during your time at AT&T when you make the request. If a union contract covers your job, check what it says about severance and talk with your union representative before negotiating on your own.

What Has AT&T Reported About Severance and Layoffs?

Knowing what AT&T has already disclosed about severance and its pension payout rules gives you a clearer starting point. AT&T maintains the AT&T Inc. Severance Pay Plan, which reported 57,015 total participants for the 2025 plan year, including 53,708 active employees and 3,307 participants separated with a benefit entitlement. Its 2025 Form 10-K says expenses in that restructuring expense line mainly reflect restructuring severance charges, a change from 2024, when the line was mostly a goodwill impairment tied to Business Wireline plus network-modernization termination fees. If a 2026 layoff affects your role, ask HR whether the Severance Pay Plan or a different policy covers you and what pay continues.

What About Your AT&T 401(k) and Pension?

AT&T's pension programs covering U.S. management employees are closed to new entrants, generally covering only those hired before January 1, 2015, and since October 1, 2016 a separating participant in the Management Cash Balance Program has been eligible to take the benefit as a single lump sum. Nonmanagement pensions are calculated under a flat-dollar or cash-balance formula, and most of those employees can choose either a lump sum or an annuity at retirement. Leaving AT&T also opens up Retirement Savings Plan options its 2018 summary plan description lists as a full lump sum, partial distributions, installment payments, a deferred distribution, or a rollover. Ask the plan administrator which pension formula and 401(k) distribution options are on file for your own separation date.