Severance pay: not always the norm.

A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that forms of severance payments vary widely for nonunion workers--with a full 22 percent of respondents reporting that they did not make severance payments to nonunion workers.

Of those who do make severance payments

to laid-off nonunion workers, payments based on length of employment were offered by 47 percent of respondents. The next most frequent form of severance was payment based on position and length of service, at 43 percent, while payments based on position alone were reported by 8 percent of respondents.

When looking at workers who received severance payments for a pre-determined period of time, 37 percent of respondents reported payments for salary continuation and health benefits, while 33 percent reported lump-sum payments. Six percent reported giving workers lump-sum payments and health benefits.

Slightly more than three-quarters of the respondents who gave laid-off workers severance pay required them to sign forms releasing the organizations from liability for employment actions.

The survey, conducted March 11-20, analyzed 399 completed surveys gathered by sending 2,764 surveys to randomly selected HR professionals, yielding a 15 percent response rate and a 5 percent margin of error.

By Susan Lackey, editorial intern for HR Magazine.

Severance Payments to Laid-Off Nonunion Workers

Payment based on length of service             47%
Payment based on position & length of service  43
Payment based on position                       8
Other                                           3

Source: Society for Human Resource Management Weekly Survey, March 11-20

Note: Table made from bar graph.