State file — Idaho
Severance itself is almost never required by law — but the paper around your exit is. In Idaho, three state rules shape your negotiation: when your last paycheck must arrive, whether a non-compete can follow you to your next job, and what notice a layoff required. If you are 40 or older, the federal clocks (21 or 45 days, plus 7 days to change your mind after signing) apply on top of everything here.
Federal rule only - no Idaho state law giving time to consider or revoke a severance/settlement agreement was found.
Run the deadline checker — it counts the federal clock and Idaho's clock together and gives you the dates.
Restricted to key people. Only a 'key employee' or 'key independent contractor' (as defined in Idaho Code 44-2702 - top-5%-paid / uniquely influential employees and equivalents) may enter a written covenant barring direct competition after termination, and only if it protects the employer's legitimate business interests and is reasonable as to duration, geographic area and type of employment/line of business and imposes no greater restraint than reasonably necessary. Duration: a post-employment direct-competition restriction may not exceed 18 months unless consideration in addition to employment/continued employment is given; 18 months or less is rebuttably presumed reasonable, as is a geographic limit to areas where the key employee provided services or had a significant presence or influence. A non-key (typical rank-and-file) employee's non-compete is not authorised by this chapter.
Why it matters at the exit table: a non-compete you sign on the way out can matter more than the severance check. If the clause would block your next job, narrowing it is one of the most common — and most granted — negotiation asks.
On layoff, or on termination by either the employer or the employee: pay or make available at the usual place of payment all wages then due by the EARLIER of the next regularly scheduled payday or within 10 days of the layoff/termination, weekends and holidays excluded. Faster on demand: if the employee makes a written request for earlier payment, all wages then due must be paid within 48 hours of receipt of the request, weekends and holidays excluded.
Unused vacation: Idaho Code 45-606 does not separately address accrued vacation; 'wages' under Idaho Code 45-601 is compensation for labor/services on a time, task, piece or commission basis, and vacation payout at separation is governed by employer policy (secondary sources).
Final pay is owed whether or not you sign anything. If the date passes without your money, your state labor agency takes these complaints — and many states add penalties for every day of delay.
Idaho has no state layoff-notice law of its own, so the federal WARN Act is the rule: employers with 100+ workers generally owe 60 days' notice of a plant closing or mass layoff (50+ jobs at one site).
Notice failures have their own remedies (back pay for each day of missed notice, in the federal law's case) — separate from the severance agreement, and worth a question if your layoff was large and sudden.
Included in the $49 SeveranceDecoded Kit
One payment. Yours to keep. Works for any severance agreement, any state.
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