Two things that used to require a pad of paper -- adding PTO, bonus, and notice pay to your base severance, then dividing the net total by your monthly expenses -- are now built directly into the calculator. Here's what's new and how to use it.
The severance pay calculator's base formula -- years of service times a weeks-per-year rate -- hasn't changed. What's new is what happens after that base number: you can now layer in the other line items a real severance letter often contains, and see at a glance roughly how long the total would last you. Both additions are optional, both live in the "Estimate severance" tab, and neither one touches the underlying base-severance math.
Quick answerBelow the core inputs, a collapsed section labeled "Add optional package extras (PTO payout, bonus, notice pay-in-lieu)" now lets you enter an unused PTO/vacation payout amount, a pro-rated or promised bonus amount, and a number of weeks of notice-period pay-in-lieu. Fill in any combination of the three, or leave them blank -- each one that has a value is added as its own labeled row in the results breakdown, on top of the base severance figure.
- Unused PTO/vacation payout: a dollar amount field for a lump-sum payout of accrued time off, if your state or employer pays it out at termination.
- Pro-rated or promised bonus: a dollar amount field for a pro-rated annual bonus or other promised bonus your employer has included in the package.
- Notice-period pay-in-lieu: entered in weeks rather than dollars, then converted using your weekly pay rate -- useful for a contractual notice period or WARN Act back pay owed for a notice period you didn't work.
Nothing is assumed: every one of these fields defaults to blank. If you don't fill them in, the calculator behaves exactly as it always has -- a plain base-severance estimate from years of service and pay.
What's new: the financial runway indicator
Quick answerA new field, "Monthly living expenses (optional -- for runway estimate)," sits below the package-extras section. If you fill it in, the result now shows how many months your net (after-tax) severance total -- including any PTO, bonus, and notice pay you've added -- would cover at that spending level. It's a straightforward division, presented as a rough planning indicator, not financial advice.
Previously, getting this number meant doing the division yourself outside the tool: adding up every line of a severance letter by hand, estimating taxes separately, and then dividing by your own budget. Now the calculator does all three steps in one pass -- base severance, optional extras, tax withholding, and the runway division -- and surfaces the months-covered figure alongside the dollar totals, so you can see both views of the same estimate at once.
The runway figure uses whatever tax withholding rate you've set (22% by default, matching the IRS flat rate for supplemental wages) applied to the full package total, not just the base severance line. That means adding a PTO payout or bonus in the fields above will increase the runway estimate too, since it increases the net total being divided by your expenses.
A quick example using both together
Here's a hypothetical walkthrough -- illustrative only, not a real case or a typical outcome. Say someone with 6 years of service and $1,100/week pay selects the 1.5-weeks-per-year rate, then adds a $2,000 PTO payout, a $1,500 pro-rated bonus, and 2 weeks of notice pay-in-lieu, and enters $3,200 as their monthly living expenses.
Illustrative example only, hypothetical inputs above
| Line item | Basis | Amount |
|---|
| Base severance | 6 yrs × 1.5 wks/yr | $9,900 |
| PTO payout | entered directly | $2,000 |
| Pro-rated bonus | entered directly | $1,500 |
| Notice pay-in-lieu | 2 wks × $1,100 | $2,200 |
| Gross package total | — | $15,600 |
After the default 22% withholding, the net estimate lands around $12,200 (again, purely illustrative -- actual withholding varies by state and total income). Divided by the $3,200 monthly-expenses figure entered above, the calculator's runway indicator would show roughly 3.8 months of coverage. Before this update, arriving at that single number meant adding four line items and running a division by hand; now it appears directly in the result alongside each component.
Practical tip: if you're comparing two different severance scenarios -- say, negotiating for an extra week of notice pay versus an extra week of base severance -- try entering each version separately in the package-extras fields and watching how the runway figure moves. It's a quick way to see which change actually extends your coverage the most, without recalculating everything by hand each time.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to fill in the package-extra fields to use the calculator?
No. The PTO payout, bonus, and notice-period pay-in-lieu fields are entirely optional and live inside a collapsed "Add optional package extras" section on the estimate tab. Leave any of them blank or at zero and the calculator simply ignores that row -- the base severance estimate (years of service times your chosen weeks-per-year rate) works exactly as it did before this update.
How does the calculator compute the runway figure?
If you enter a monthly living-expenses figure in the new optional field, the calculator divides your net (after-tax) severance total -- including any PTO payout, bonus, and notice pay-in-lieu you've added -- by that monthly amount, and reports the result as a number of months. It's a simple division, shown for context alongside the dollar totals, not a budgeting plan or a recommendation for how many months you should target.
Does entering PTO payout or bonus change the base severance formula?
No. The base severance figure is still calculated only from years of service and your chosen weeks-per-year rate, unchanged by this update. PTO payout, pro-rated bonus, and notice-period pay-in-lieu are added as separate, clearly labeled rows in the results breakdown on top of that base figure, so you can see each component individually rather than one merged total.
Is the notice-period pay-in-lieu field the same as WARN Act back pay?
Not necessarily, though it can represent the same thing. The field lets you enter any number of weeks of pay in lieu of notice, calculated at your weekly rate -- that could come from a contractual notice period, a company policy, or WARN Act back pay owed after an improperly noticed mass layoff. The calculator does not distinguish the source; it's simply a weeks-based input you fill in based on what your own offer or notice situation states.
Does the runway indicator account for taxes on the whole package, including PTO and bonus?
Yes, the runway figure is calculated from the net estimate, which applies your chosen tax withholding rate (default 22%, the IRS flat rate for supplemental wages) to the combined total of base severance plus any PTO payout, bonus, and notice pay-in-lieu you've entered. It does not separately account for state income tax, Social Security, or Medicare beyond what you configure, so treat the resulting months figure as an approximation, not a precise after-tax number.