State file — West Virginia
Severance itself is almost never required by law — but the paper around your exit is. In West Virginia, 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 West Virginia's clock together and gives you the dates.
No general statutory ban or wage threshold found. Enforceable under common-law reasonableness (legitimate protectable interest, reasonable time/territory/scope, not unduly harsh or against public policy); WV courts disfavour restraints and construe them narrowly. This cell had the thinnest research in the batch — verify health-care-specific provisions before publishing detail beyond the general rule.
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.
Current code: whenever an employer discharges an employee, or an employee quits or resigns, pay the wages due for work performed before separation ON OR BEFORE the next regular payday on which the wages would otherwise be due. Laid-off / labour-dispute-suspended employees: same next-regular-payday rule under subsection (d). NOTE: older summaries citing 72 hours, or 'next payday or 4 business days, whichever first,' are superseded — the current §21-5-4(b) text opened for this research contains only the next-regular-payday rule.
Unused vacation: Fringe benefits (as defined in §21-5-1, incl. vacation) provided under an agreement between employer and employee that are due but, by the agreement's terms, are payable at a future date or on ascertainable additional conditions are NOT payable on the next regular payday — they are paid according to the terms of the agreement.
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.
West Virginia 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