Most people getting laid off treat the first severance offer as fixed. It isn't, and in 2026 specifically, knowing what's actually negotiable matters more than it used to, because the baseline itself has gotten smaller.
Know the 2026 baseline before you negotiate
Median tech severance in 2026 sits around 10 weeks, down from roughly 14 weeks in 2023, a contraction of about 30 percent. COBRA subsidy periods, when employers cover continued health coverage as part of severance, have shrunk too, from an average of around 6 months down to roughly 3. If your initial offer is in that range, you're being offered the current market norm, not a lowball, but that also means the extras beyond the base number are where the actual negotiation room is this year.
What's actually negotiable beyond the check
Five things are commonly on the table even when a company presents the initial offer as final: the length of health insurance continuation (COBRA subsidy period), outplacement services (resume coaching, interview prep, job search support), unused PTO payout, equity or option vesting acceleration, and the exact wording of your reference and departure announcement. None of these are guaranteed by law in the US, which means all of them are genuinely negotiable, not just the base severance number.
Timing and leverage
Don't sign the release on the spot. You're generally entitled to review time, and using it to check your offer against your actual legal entitlements first gives you a stronger negotiating position, not a weaker one. If your layoff was large enough to trigger WARN Act notice requirements and your employer gave you less than the required notice, that shortfall converts directly into leverage, and often into additional pay, not just goodwill.
What doesn't work
Asking for "more" with no anchor rarely moves anyone. Asking for a specific extension to your COBRA subsidy period, a specific outplacement package, or a specific equity acceleration date, backed by what similar-sized layoffs at comparable companies are actually offering this year, is a materially different conversation.
Where to check your entitlement first
Before you negotiate anything, confirm what you're legally owed as a floor. See our full breakdowns for UK severance and notice periods and US WARN Act notice and severance rules. Once you know the floor, benchmark your next role's comp on Finjobsly's salary tool before you sign anything, and set up job alerts so you're not negotiating from a position of urgency.