The weeks-per-year formula
Take the annual salary, divide by 52 to get the weekly pay, multiply by the weeks per year your package grants, then multiply by your years of service. Five years at one week per year on a $75,000 salary is (75,000 / 52) × 5, which is 5 weeks of pay - about $7,212.
The page multiplies; it does not average. The weekly pay scaled by tenure means a two-week formula pays exactly twice a one-week one on the same number of years, and ten years pays twice five. Both the pay-per-year multiplier and the years are multiplication, so neither number stays put when the other changes.
The page also converts weeks into months of income (weeks divided by 4.33), because that is the figure people actually feel: a payout is a runway, and a runway is measured in months rather than weeks.
One row of the table repeats this arithmetic at 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 weeks per year using your exact salary and tenure, so the four common formulas can be read side by side before you negotiate.
One and two weeks per year are the common range
Most packages fall at one to two weeks of pay per year of service; three is generous and usually tied to a role, a layoff class, or the terms of a release agreement.
The four rows of the table (0.5, 1, 2 and 3 weeks per year) are a fixed comparison set, not a repeat of the multiplier you entered above. They show what each common formula would pay at your salary and tenure so you can weigh one against another; the figure you typed yourself appears only in the result at the top.
Half a week per year is not unusual at small companies, and tenure supports half-year steps, so the table treats fractions as real, negotiable levers rather than rounding them away.
Because the pay-per-year figure and the years are both multipliers, changing either one moves the outcome by proportion and not by a fixed amount - which is why the same multiplier can look generous to a short tenure and thin to a long one.
What the law actually says
Federal law does not require severance; the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act covers notice for mass layoffs, but even where it applies it is notice, not pay. State law, employment contracts, and company policy are what make severance real.
A release agreement often trades the payout for a waiver of claims - worth reading before relying on a number, because it can spell out the timing of payment (lump sum versus salary continuation), any conditions tied to continued compliance, and what happens if you breach its terms.
States differ: some add their own notice or payment obligations around large layoffs and some do not. This page does not judge which rules apply in your state, and it does not convert WARN notice weeks into money - it only prices the formula you entered.
What the estimate leaves out
The result is formula arithmetic on the salary you type in. Real packages often add accrued vacation, a pro-rata bonus, continued health coverage or outplacement, and they may pay as salary continuation rather than a lump sum - which changes both the timing and the tax picture.
Whether a payout is offered at all, and on what terms, is a matter for your contract, your employer’s policy and the release they ask you to sign, so read the result as the formula and not as the offer. An estimate, not a return, and not tax advice.
Inputs are clamped to the field ranges the page uses - tenure up to 50 years and pay-per-year from 0.5 to 4 weeks - and if a very large salary pushes the figure past the page’s money ceiling, it prints the raw number with a clear note that the input is out of range rather than pretending the total is realistic.
Danfio