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Fired in Oregon: when your last paycheck has to be paid

Being fired does not change what you are owed — it changes the deadline. In Oregon, on discharge, all wages earned and unpaid are due and payable within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays (ORS 652.140).

If that date has passed and the money has not arrived, you are no longer asking for a favour; you are recording a missed legal deadline. That is the difference a demand letter makes.

Statute
ORS 652.140; ORS 652.150 (penalty wages)
If fired
On discharge, all wages earned and unpaid are due and payable within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays (ORS 652.140).
If you resigned
If you quit without giving at least 48 hours' notice, all wages earned are due and payable within five days (ORS 652.140). If you gave at least 48 hours' notice, wages are due within 48 hours or by the next regular payday, whichever the employer chooses.
Late-pay penalty
ORS 652.150: if wages are not paid when due, the employer owes penalty wages equal to eight hours' pay at the employee's regular rate for each day the wages remain unpaid, up to 30 days.
PTO
Oregon treats accrued vacation as wages when the employer's policy creates the right; earned vacation is payable at separation unless a valid policy provides otherwise.
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 exact date of your separation as it appears on the termination notice, the last timecard, or the last email from the employer — not the date you were told.
  2. Your final pay stub, or the absence of one, plus your last two regular stubs to prove the rate of pay.
  3. Any text, email or letter that states the reason for the termination. In Oregon the deadline does not depend on the reason, but the record does.
  4. A screenshot of the payroll portal showing the last payment date, so the gap is documented by the employer's own system.

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 Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), a small claims judge — starts from those three facts. The letter is built from ORS 652.140; ORS 652.150 (penalty wages) 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 Oregon letter — $9.99 Free: calculate my deadline

Questions

Can my employer wait until the next payday after firing me in Oregon?

On discharge, all wages earned and unpaid are due and payable within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays (ORS 652.140).

What can I claim on top of the wages in Oregon?

ORS 652.150: if wages are not paid when due, the employer owes penalty wages equal to eight hours' pay at the employee's regular rate for each day the wages remain unpaid, up to 30 days.

Other situations in Oregon

resigning · a layoff · unused PTO · unpaid commissions · all Oregon rules

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