The world over, employees in the United States who are laid off are paid the least amount of severance no matter what their level of seniority is or amount of tenure with the company.

The Right Management study of more than 1,500 human resources professionals and senior managers responsible for making severance decisions in 28 countries found that top U.S. executives earned as little as 2.76 weeks of severance per year of service compared to an average 3.39 weeks per year of service for other countries.

Mean Weeks of Severance Per Year of Service:

Other key findings from the study:

• U.S. employers are more likely (68%) to enforce a cap on severance payments than the rest of the world (56%).
• Ninety-six percent of separated employees in the U.S. are required to sign a waiver before they can access severance benefits.
• Unlike in other regions, 61% of companies in the U.S. tend to offer severance right away with no minimum tenure required, compared to 42% doing so in the rest of the world.

Survey Methodology
Right Management engaged International Communications Research to conduct the study in 28 countries between July and September 2008. Of the 1,524 survey responses received, 45% were from the Americas (including 456 from the United States), 34% were from Europe and 21% were from Asia Pacific. A broad cross section of industries was represented.

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