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 Dow Incorporated, 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 Dow Incorporated.

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 Dow Incorporated Employees Get After a Layoff?

What a laid-off Dow Incorporated employee receives depends on which written Dow Incorporated severance plan or policy, if any, covers the employee, any union contract or individual agreement that covers the employee, any package Dow Incorporated announces for a specific layoff, what those terms say, and the law where the employee works; the Dow Incorporated section below lists what public sources show about Dow Incorporated. 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 Dow Incorporated 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 Dow reported about severance and layoffs?

Dow's own disclosures about its recent restructuring give a sense of what any package might include. The Dow Chemical Company Transition Payment Program, a welfare benefit plan in effect since 1985, reported 205 separated participants receiving payments and zero active participants in plan year 2024.

In January 2026 Dow's board approved a global reduction of about 4,500 roles under its Transform to Outperform plan, with severance and related benefit costs and cash outlays expected to total $600 million to $800 million through 2027. News coverage tied to that plan reported more than 100 layoffs at Dow's Seadrift, Texas plant in June 2026 and Michigan employees getting notices the same month. If a future round reaches you, ask HR whether the Transition Payment Program or another policy applies to your situation.

What about your Dow 401(k) and pension?

Dow's Employees' Savings Plan matches 100% of the first 4% of pay a participant defers and 50% of the next 2%, and since January 1, 2024 it adds an automatic 4% non-elective company contribution for eligible U.S. employees. New hires are auto-enrolled at 6%, rising 1 percentage point a year to 15% unless they opt out, and every account is immediately 100% vested. At separation, benefits are generally paid as a lump sum or partial withdrawal, with balances of $1,000 or less cashed out automatically. Dow's pension plan stopped all future benefit accruals at the end of 2023; its cash-balance Personal Pension Account piece then became its own plan, covering only employees who were already participants on December 31, 2023.