State file — South Dakota
Severance itself is almost never required by law — but the paper around your exit is. In South Dakota, 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 state severance/settlement consideration or revocation statute found beyond the federal OWBPA/ADEA (21 days individual / 45 days group, 7 days to revoke, age 40+).
Run the deadline checker — it counts the federal clock and South Dakota's clock together and gives you the dates.
Statutory scheme: contracts restraining a lawful profession/trade/business are void except as the Legislature allows. An employee may validly agree not to engage in the same business/profession and not to solicit the employer's existing customers, in a specified county / first- or second-class municipality / other specified area, for up to 2 years after the agreement ends, if the employer keeps carrying on a like business there. No wage threshold.
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.
Fired, quit or separated: pay all wages due by the next regular payday — or as soon after that as the employee returns all employer property in the employee's possession, whichever the statute allows to control.
Unused vacation: No state mandate to pay unused vacation/PTO at separation unless the employer's policy or agreement promises it; a promise is then enforceable as wages.
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.
South Dakota 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.
Back to severance laws by state · the deadline checker