If you have been let go from your job in Ontario, your first and most pressing question is likely: “How much severance pay should I get?”
Many employees turn to a standard severance pay chart for a quick answer, assuming there is a strict legal formula they can use to calculate their payout. While a chart can provide a rough baseline, relying on a simple “one week per year of service” myth is the number one reason Ontario employees leave tens of thousands of dollars on the table.
Below, you will find a general severance pay chart detailing typical compensation ranges. However, to discover what you are actually owed based on the specific facts of your employment, you must use a comprehensive Severance Pay Calculator.
Employers frequently use confusing legal jargon to offer you the bare minimum required by the government, hoping you won’t realize you are owed much more under Ontario common law. Do not sign a severance offer or a release document before having an employment lawyer review it.
On This Page:
- 1. Severance Pay Chart Ontario
- 2. The Bardal Factors
- 3. Calculate Exact Severance
- 4. What to Do After Calculations
Severance Pay Chart Ontario: General Guidelines
When an employer terminates a non-unionized employee without cause, they are legally required to provide compensation to help bridge the gap while the employee searches for new work.
While the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA) provides strict, capped minimums, your true legal entitlement is based on common law severance. Under common law, employees may be owed anywhere from a few weeks to as much as 24 months of full pay.
Here is a general estimate of what an employee might be owed under common law based on their tenure:
| Years of Service | Typical Common Law Severance Range |
| Less than 1 year | 2 to 4 weeks’ pay |
| 1 to 3 years | 1 to 3 months’ pay |
| 4 to 10 years | 4 to 10 months’ pay |
| 10 to 20 years | 10 to 18 months’ pay |
| 20+ years | Up to 24 months’ pay |
Why a Simple Chart is Not Enough: The Bardal Factors
You might notice that the chart above provides massive, overlapping ranges. Why might one employee with 5 years of service get 4 months of severance, while another with the same tenure gets 10 months?
The answer is that Ontario courts do not use a strict mathematical formula. Instead, the law calculates your common law severance based on a set of legal principles known as the Bardal factors. When our lawyers calculate your true severance entitlement, we are looking at:
- Your Age: Courts recognize that a 55-year-old generally faces significantly more difficulty finding a comparable new job than a 30-year-old. Older employees typically receive much longer notice periods.
- Length of Service: While tenure is important, short-service employees (e.g., those who worked for a company for under a year) can sometimes receive disproportionately large severance packages if other factors weigh in their favour.
- Your Position and Seniority: Senior, highly specialized, or executive roles often take longer to replace. The more specialized your position, the more severance you are likely owed.
- Availability of Similar Employment: If the job market in your specific industry is poor, or if you were subject to a non-compete clause, your severance should be higher to compensate for the difficulty of finding new work.
Total Compensation Matters
Furthermore, your severance payout can’t just be based on your base salary. A proper calculation must include your total compensation package, including accrued vacation pay, average bonuses, commissions, pension contributions, and the continuation of your health and dental benefits.
Calculate Your Exact Severance in Ontario
Because the Bardal factors require a complex, personalized legal analysis, relying on a static chart is incredibly dangerous. To get an accurate assessment of your legal entitlements, you need a tool that weighs all the variables courts care about.
Our proprietary calculator takes your age, salary, position, and years of service, and cross-references them against decades of Ontario common law precedent to give you a highly accurate estimate of your maximum entitlements.
What to Do After You Calculate Your Severance
Once you have used the calculator and realized that your employer’s initial offer falls short of your common law rights, do not panic, and do not sign the offer.
Employers often impose arbitrary, high-pressure deadlines (such as “You have 3 days to sign this release”) to force you into accepting a lowball offer. In Ontario, you actually have up to two years from the date of your termination to pursue a legal claim for full severance pay.
- Take the package home: You have the absolute legal right to take the severance offer home to review it.
- Do not resign: If your employer offers you a package but tells you it is better if you simply “resign,” refuse. Quitting your job generally eliminates your right to severance pay.
- Call an employment lawyer: An employment lawyer in Ontario can review your employment contract to ensure there are no illegal termination clauses, assess your Bardal factors, and handle the negotiation with your employer entirely on your behalf.
As Canada’s largest employee-side employment law firm, Samfiru Tumarkin LLP has a proven track record of turning minimum ESA offers into maximum common law payouts. Over 99% of our employment cases are resolved quickly and successfully without ever going to court.
Contact Us Today
Let us secure the compensation you deserve.