Severance Agreements for Workers 40+: Why the Review Period Is Sometimes 21 Days and Sometimes 45
Handing an employee a severance agreement and a pen isn't enough to make an age-discrimination waiver stick. For anyone 40 or older, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) sets minimum timing requirements that, if skipped, can void the waiver entirely — leaving the employee free to both keep the severance money and pursue the claims the agreement was supposed to release.
21 days for one person, 45 for a group
The consideration period an employee must be given before signing depends on how the termination happened. An individual termination requires at least 21 days to consider the agreement. A termination that's part of a group or "decisional unit" — a layoff, reduction in force, or other program affecting multiple employees 40 or older — requires at least 45 days, along with additional disclosures about the ages and job titles of everyone included in the group. Treating a group layoff as an individual termination and only giving 21 days is one of the most common OWBPA compliance failures.
The 7-day revocation window is separate and non-negotiable
Whichever consideration period applies, OWBPA separately requires every compliant agreement to give the employee 7 days after signing to revoke acceptance. This window exists on top of the consideration period, not instead of it — and the agreement is not legally effective, and money should not change hands, until the 7 days have fully run without a revocation.
Employers sometimes try to release funds the moment an agreement is signed, before the revocation period closes. That's premature under OWBPA and creates unnecessary risk if the employee does revoke.
An employee can sign early — the minimums are a floor, not a wait requirement
None of this means an employee has to wait out the full consideration period before signing. OWBPA sets the minimum time an employer must offer, not a mandatory delay before acceptance. An employee who reviews the agreement, perhaps with an attorney, and wants to sign on day one is free to do so — the requirement is that the option to take up to 21 or 45 days existed, not that it was used.
Why this matters beyond compliance paperwork
For employers, getting this wrong isn't a technicality — a defective waiver can be challenged years later, well after the severance was paid out, and courts have invalidated waivers over review-period shortfalls that seemed minor at the time. For employees, understanding the timeline means knowing exactly when the agreement becomes binding, and exactly how many days remain to change your mind after signing.
Map out your specific dates
The Severance Agreement Review Period calculator takes the date the agreement was received, whether it was offered as part of a group termination, and (once known) the date it was signed, and returns the consideration deadline, the revocation deadline, and the actual effective date. Whether you're an HR team building a compliant timeline or an employee deciding how much time you actually have, run the real dates rather than assuming the shorter 21-day figure applies by default.