Is There a Legal Difference Between Lump Sum Severance Payment and Payments Over Time?
Understanding the Impact of Payment Terms in a Severance AgreementIf you are offered a severance package, it may be a lump sum a certain number of days after signing the agreement, or it may be continued salary payments through regular payroll for an agreed number of weeks or months.
Though there are practical implications for you financially, legally, these are no different. For purposes of unemployment, for example, the key question is not how the money is paid, but whether you signed a release of claims. If you signed a release of claims, you should be able to collect whether it is a lump sum or salary continuation (though be advised that the DUA is sometimes confused by this, and you should be prepared to show them your severance agreement). The other practical implication is that if you are on salary continuation and your employer wants to claim you have violated some term of the agreement (i.e., non-disparagement), all they have to do is stop making the payments. In contrast, if they have made a lump sum payment, they would have to bring a claim and actually prove the violation in order to recoup the severance payments. For these reasons, it is preferable from the employee's perspective to receive a lump sum payment, but it does not substantively change your rights if the employer prefers salary continuation. |
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Emily Smith-Lee is the owner and founder of slnlaw. She is a 1996 graduate of Boston College Law School. She was previously a partner at the Boston office of a large international firm, where she worked for thirteen years before starting the firm that became slnlaw in 2009. She has been recognized as Massachusetts Superlawyer each year since 2013, and in 2018 earned recognition as one of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly's Lawyers of the Year. She has written a book on employment law: Rules of the Road, What You Need to Know About Employment Laws in Massachusetts, been interviewed by the Massachusetts Superlawyers magazine about non compete agreements, and written an op-ed in the New York Times about the dangers of non competes. Along with the rest of the slnlaw team, she has helped hundreds of clients navigate, negotiate, or defend against their non compete agreements.
Rebecca Rogers: Rebecca is a 2006 graduate of Boston College Law School, and has worked with slnlaw since 2013. She previously worked as an intellectual property litigation attorney for Fish & Richardson in Boston, Massachusetts, and clerked for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Rebecca has helped many clients understand and evaluate their non compete agreements and develop strategies for defending against non compete enforcement and negotiating resolution.
Jenna Ordway: Jenna is a 2013 graduate of Quinnipiac Law School, and also earned an LLM in Taxation from Boston University in 2015. She has been affiliated with slnlaw since 2011, first as a law clerk and then as an attorney. Jenna has been recognized since 2019 as a "Rising Star" by Massachusetts Superlawyers. Jenna works with employers to develop reasonable and enforceable employee agreements, including non competes. She has also helped employees understand and evaluate their non compete agreements and develop strategies for defending against non compete enforcement and negotiating resolution.
Elijah Bresley: Eli is a 2014 graduate of Seton Hall Law school, and has worked with slnlaw since 2020. He previously worked for a boutique employment law firm outside of Boston, and then for the Labor and Employment department of a large Boston firm. He also spent a year clerking for the judges of the Superior Court in Hartford, Connecticut. Eli has helped clients both evaluate and negotiate their non compete agreements, and defended non compete claims in state and federal courts.
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