WARN Act: 60 Days’ Notice Before a Mass Layoff
What Is It?
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), 29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq., requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to give affected workers at least 60 calendar days’ advance written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. If an employer skips or shortens the notice, affected employees can sue for up to 60 days of back pay and benefits they would have earned during that window.
Do I Qualify?
Check all four boxes:
- Your employer has 100+ employees. Part-time workers (fewer than 20 hours/week or fewer than 6 months of employment) generally don’t count toward the threshold.
- You were affected by a qualifying event. A plant closing shuts down a single employment site (or operating unit) for 6+ months, affecting 50+ workers. A mass layoff at a single site affects either 500+ workers, or 50–499 workers if they represent at least 33% of the workforce.
- You are a covered employee. Most hourly and salaried workers qualify. Managers and supervisors are covered too. Employees terminated for cause or who quit voluntarily are excluded.
- You received less than 60 days’ advance written notice — or none at all.
How It Works
Notice requirements. Employers must send written notice to each affected employee (or to union representatives if the workforce is organized), plus to the state dislocated-worker unit and the local government chief elected official, at least 60 calendar days before the first layoff.
Calculating what you’re owed. If proper notice wasn’t given, you can recover:
- Up to 60 days of back pay at your regular rate (or average regular rate for the 3 years preceding the layoff, whichever is higher)
- The value of benefits you would have received — health insurance, COBRA continuation value, pension contributions, and similar benefits
- Employer civil penalties of up to $500/day for each day of violation, up to 60 days
Filing a claim. WARN Act claims are filed in U.S. District Court — there is no administrative agency to complain to first. Most employees work with a private employment attorney, often on contingency. Class action suits are common when many coworkers are affected. There is a 3-year statute of limitations.
The Three Exceptions (Employers Use These Frequently)
Employers can shorten or eliminate the 60-day notice if they prove one of these:
- Faltering company: The employer was actively seeking capital or business that could have prevented the closing, and giving notice would have ruined those prospects. Applies only to plant closings, not mass layoffs.
- Unforeseeable business circumstances: The closing or layoff was caused by a sudden, dramatic, unexpected business condition — for example, the loss of a major contract with no warning. The employer must give notice as soon as practicable.
- Natural disaster: Floods, earthquakes, droughts, storms, tidal waves, or similar events. Notice must still be given as soon as practicable.
Even when an exception applies, the employer owes notice for whatever portion of 60 days it could have given. If the employer had 30 days’ warning, employees are owed back pay for 30 days.
State Mini-WARN Laws
More than a dozen states have their own WARN-style statutes that are often more protective than the federal law:
| State | Employer threshold | Notice period |
|---|---|---|
| California | 75+ employees | 60 days |
| New York | 50+ employees | 90 days |
| New Jersey | 100+ employees | 60 days + severance |
| Illinois | 75+ employees | 60 days |
| Maryland | 50+ employees | 60 days |
New Jersey is notably aggressive — it also requires severance pay of one week per year of service when WARN applies. Check your state labor department website for the current rules.
What Most People Don’t Know
- Part-time exclusion cuts both ways. If your employer filled its workforce with part-time workers to stay under 100 employees, an employment lawyer can help you challenge whether the employer manipulated headcount to evade WARN.
- Temporary layoffs can trigger WARN. If a “temporary” layoff extends beyond 6 months, it is treated as a plant closing retroactively.
- Buyouts and acquisitions. WARN obligations transfer to the buyer of a business in an asset sale unless the buyer hires substantially all affected workers. Employees who aren’t hired by the buyer may have a WARN claim against the seller.
- WARN doesn’t require severance. It requires notice — or back pay in lieu of notice. It doesn’t entitle you to traditional severance pay (which is a separate, contractual right).
- 60 days is calendar days, not business days. Weekends and holidays count.
Frequently Asked Questions
My employer gave me only 15 days’ notice before the layoff. Am I owed anything?
Yes. If WARN applies, you’re owed the equivalent of 45 days of back pay and benefits — the gap between the 15 days you got and the 60 days you were entitled to.
Can I file a WARN Act claim on my own without a lawyer?
You can, but it’s difficult. WARN claims go directly to federal district court, which requires filing a civil complaint. Because WARN violations are often class-wide, most employees find it more practical to join or initiate a class action with an attorney. Many employment lawyers take WARN cases on contingency.
Does WARN apply if I was laid off for performance reasons during a mass layoff?
No. Employees terminated for cause — meaning individual misconduct or poor performance — are excluded from WARN, even if they happened to be let go at the same time as a covered mass layoff.
My employer is headquartered in another state than where I worked. Which mini-WARN law applies?
The mini-WARN law of the state where you worked applies — not where the company is headquartered.
Does WARN cover remote workers?
This is an unsettled area. Traditionally, WARN counts employees at a single “employment site,” which for remote workers may be considered their home state or office of record. Courts have handled this inconsistently; consult an employment attorney if your situation involves a distributed workforce.