Severance in Indiana: the rules on your way out

Your thinking-it-over clock in Indiana

Federal rule only — no Indiana statute found giving a general state consideration/revocation period for severance or settlement agreements beyond the federal OWBPA (21/45 days to consider, 7 days to revoke, for releases of ADEA claims by workers 40+).

Run the deadline checker — it counts the federal clock and Indiana's clock together and gives you the dates.

Non-competes in Indiana: generally enforceable if reasonable

For a typical employee, non-competes are generally enforceable if reasonable and specific in time, geography, and scope and protective of a legitimate business interest; courts may blue-pencil. Major statutory carve-out is physicians only: non-competes with primary care physicians (family medicine, general pediatrics, internal medicine) entered on/after July 1, 2023 are prohibited, and any physician non-compete is unenforceable from July 1, 2023 if the employer terminates the physician without cause, the physician quits for cause, or the contract expired and was fulfilled; hospital-physician non-competes were further barred for agreements on/after July 1, 2025.

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.

Your last paycheck in Indiana

When an employer separates an employee from the payroll, unpaid wages become due and payable at the regular payday for the pay period in which the separation occurred — i.e., the next regular payday. No faster deadline for fired vs. quit.

Unused vacation: No statutory payout mandate in the cited sections; accrued vacation is paid only as the employer's policy/agreement provides (Indiana treats promised vacation as wages under that policy).

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.

Layoff notice in Indiana

Indiana 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.