Home › Final paycheck letters › New York › layoff

Laid off in New York: final pay, and what severance does not cover

A reduction in force is still a separation, and severance is not a substitute for wages already earned. In New York, a layoff follows the same rule: final wages are due on the next regular payday for the pay period worked.

If you were offered severance in exchange for a release, the release covers claims — it does not convert earned wages into a favour, and it does not move the statutory deadline.

Statute
N.Y. Lab. Law §§ 191, 198
If fired
Final wages are due no later than the regular payday on which they would have been paid had you stayed employed (Labor Law § 191). New York does not require the employer to pay on the day of discharge.
If you resigned
The same rule applies when you resign: final wages are due on the next regular payday. On request the employer must mail the final pay.
Late-pay penalty
Labor Law § 198: a worker who wins may recover the unpaid wages plus liquidated damages of 100% of the unpaid amount, with interest and attorney's fees. In practice that doubles the exposure on the wage figure alone.
PTO
Accrued vacation is wages in New York: it must be paid at separation unless the employer gave employees a written forfeiture policy in advance.
Small claims limit
$10,000 for an individual
Last verified
2026-11-03 single source

What to put in the file before you write anything

  1. The layoff notice or WARN letter, which usually states the separation date the employer will rely on.
  2. The severance agreement, read for two things: what it says about final wages, and whether it asks you to release the wage claim itself.
  3. Your accrual balance for PTO, and the employer policy that governs forfeiture in New York.
  4. Any commission or bonus plan document, because the payment date in the plan is what an employer will point to.

What the letter does that a phone call cannot

A demand letter fixes three things at once: the amount, the date each item was due, and the date the employer was on notice. Every forum that can help you — the New York State Department of Labor — Division of Labor Standards, a small claims judge — starts from those three facts. The letter is built from N.Y. Lab. Law §§ 191, 198 and your own figures, so the deadline it states is the one that applies to your separation, not a generic thirty days.

If the amount fits inside $10,000, small claims court is usually faster than an agency queue; if it does not, the agency route and a demand first is the cheaper path.

Build the New York letter — $9.99 Free: calculate my deadline

Questions

Does accepting severance waive my final paycheck in New York?

No. Severance is consideration for a release of claims; earned wages are already owed. A release that purports to cover unpaid wages is a separate question, and one worth reading carefully before signing.

Is my layoff deadline different from a firing in New York?

A layoff follows the same rule: final wages are due on the next regular payday for the pay period worked.

Other situations in New York

being fired · resigning · unused PTO · unpaid commissions · all New York rules

Reviewed 2026-11-03 against the sources listed on the New York page. This is a self-help document tool, not legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.