Federal & State Layoff Notice Law

The WARN Act, in plain English

What the federal notice law requires, which states layer stricter rules on top, and what you may be owed if your employer skipped the 60 days you were due.

The federal floor

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, passed in 1988, applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees, or 100 or more employees who collectively work at least 4,000 hours per week excluding overtime. Covered employers must give 60 calendar days of written notice before either a mass layoff or a plant closing. Notice has to go to the affected workers (or their union representatives), the state dislocated-worker unit, and the chief elected official of the local government where the site is located.

What counts as a triggering event

A plant closing is the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single employment site (or one or more facilities or operating units within it) that results in employment loss for 50 or more full-time employees during any 30-day period. A mass layoff is a reduction in force that is not a plant closing and that results in employment loss at a single site for either 500 or more full-time employees, or for 50 to 499 full-time employees if they represent at least 33% of the active workforce at that site. Multiple smaller layoffs within a 90-day window can be aggregated if they would have triggered WARN as a single event.

The narrow exceptions

Three carve-outs let an employer give less than 60 days notice but do not eliminate the obligation to give as much notice as practicable: faltering company (closings only, where seeking capital would have been jeopardized by notice), unforeseeable business circumstances, and natural disaster. Each exception is read narrowly by courts and the burden is on the employer to prove it applies. The COVID-19 wave of cases made clear that simply calling a downturn unforeseeable is not enough.

States with stricter mini-WARN laws

A growing list of states impose lower employee thresholds, longer notice windows, or in some cases mandatory statutory severance. The most consequential ones to know:

California — 75-employee threshold, 60 days' notice, no “unforeseen circumstances” escape hatch in most cases.
New York — 50-employee threshold, 90 days' notice.
New Jersey — 100-employee threshold, 90 days' notice, mandatory severance of one week per year of service.
Illinois — 75-employee threshold, 60 days' notice.
Maine — 100-employee threshold, severance of one week per year of service if notice is skipped.
Washington — 50-employee threshold for closures, 60 days' notice.

What you may be owed if notice was skipped

The remedy under federal WARN is back pay at the employee’s regular rate of pay plus the value of benefits (including the cost of medical coverage) for each day of missed notice, up to a maximum of 60 days. Civil penalties of up to $500 per day of violation can be assessed for failure to notify the local government, though those are payable to the local government rather than the employee. State mini-WARN laws often add separate damages on top — New Jersey’s law, for example, requires severance of one week of pay per year of service in addition to any federal recovery.

Step 1 of 3

Estimates based on public data and industry benchmarks. Not legal advice.

WARN Act questions

How do I know if my employer triggers WARN?

Federal WARN applies if your employer has 100 or more full-time employees (or 100 employees who work a combined 4,000+ hours per week, excluding overtime) and either lays off 50+ employees at a single site within 30 days who make up at least 33% of the active workforce there, lays off 500+ employees at one site, or shuts a site down entirely. Several states lower the employee threshold or the layoff size, so even smaller employers can trigger a state mini-WARN.

What if I got partial notice?

WARN damages are calculated per day of missed notice, not as a flat penalty. If you were owed 60 days and got 14, the employer is on the hook for back pay and benefits for the remaining 46 calendar days you should have been given. Voluntary severance the employer pays during the missed-notice window can offset what they owe, but only if the agreement is structured that way — read the release carefully before signing.

How long do I have to file a WARN claim?

There is no fixed federal statute of limitations in the WARN Act itself, so courts borrow the most analogous state limitations period — commonly two to six years depending on the jurisdiction. State mini-WARN laws have their own clocks. Because that window varies and because evidence preservation matters, talk to an employment attorney as soon as you suspect a violation rather than waiting.