State file — Louisiana
Severance itself is almost never required by law — but the paper around your exit is. In Louisiana, 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 Louisiana statute found giving a general state consideration/revocation period for severance or settlement agreements beyond the federal OWBPA.
Run the deadline checker — it counts the federal clock and Louisiana's clock together and gives you the dates.
Void by default: every contract restraining a person from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business is null and void except as the statute provides. The employer-employee exception allows a covenant only if it (1) is limited to carrying on/engaging in a business similar to the employer's and/or soliciting the employer's customers, (2) specifies the parish(es), municipality(ies), or parts thereof where the employer carries on a like business, and (3) does not exceed 2 years from termination. No general reasonableness balancing — strict statutory compliance is required, and most out-of-state templates fail on the parish-listing requirement.
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 discharge or resignation, pay the amount then due under the terms of employment on or before the next regular payday, or within 15 days of discharge/resignation, whichever occurs FIRST (earlier). Penalty exposure for failure after demand can reach 90 days' wages.
Unused vacation: Vacation pay counts as an amount then due only if, under the employer's stated vacation policy, the employee was eligible for and had accrued the right to take paid vacation and had not taken or been paid for it; the statute may not be read to allow forfeiture of vacation pay actually earned under the employer's 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.
Louisiana 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