2026 edition

Termination Cost Index 2026

Name: Termination Cost Index 2026
Creator: Robbin Schuchmann
Published: 2026
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

What the law makes an employer pay to end an employment relationship, scored across 190 countries and territories. One number per country: statutory notice plus statutory severance, in weeks of salary.

Sri Lanka makes an employer pay 58.5 wk of salary to let one person go. In the United States, statute requires nothing at all.

The median scored country owes 15.3 wk, about 3.5 months of pay, before a single term is negotiated. Hiring plans are built on the salary. The exit is where the law actually bites.

190

Countries and territories

15.3

Median weeks of salary

Sri Lanka

Costliest

No statutory cost

Robbin Schuchmann

Co-founder, Employ Borderless

Updated August 2026

Where the cost sits

The 40 costliest of 190 scored countries and territories, each bar split into the two things the bill is made of: statutory notice on the left, statutory severance on the right. Notice is time you keep paying somebody who is still employed. Severance is a payment on the way out. The same total means very different things depending on which side it comes from.

In these 40, severance is the larger half in 40, and notice leads in none of them. The heaviest notice-led obligations look nothing like that: Belgium requires 19.7 wk of notice and no statutory severance at all, and Denmark requires 18.8 wk of notice and no statutory severance at all, which is why neither shows up above. Long paid notice adds up without ever producing a lump sum. The remaining 150 scored countries and territories are in the full ranking.

Statutory noticeStatutory severanceWeeks of salary, ordered by total

The global picture

Every scored country, shaded by the total weeks of salary owed on a redundancy dismissal. Darker is more expensive. Grey countries aren’t scored; we show coverage rather than fill gaps.

Extreme · above 30 weeks · 14Heavy · above 15 up to 30 weeks · 83Standard · 5 to 15 weeks · 78Light · above zero, under 5 weeks · 13The zero club · no statutory cost · 2Not scored

Weeks of salaryUnder 55 to 1515 to 2525 to 4040+ weeksNo data

Key findings

Sri Lanka owes the most: 58.5 wk of salary

Statutory notice of 4.3 wk plus statutory severance of 54.2 wk, which is about 13.5 months of pay before anything is negotiated. It ranks 1st of 190 scored countries and territories.

Only 2 places set no statutory exit cost at all

New Zealand and United States set no minimum notice and no minimum severance, so an exit there costs whatever the contract, the collective agreement, or the negotiation says it costs. The club shrank in the August 2026 re-verification: Puerto Rico owes 23.7 wk under Act 80 of 1976 rather than nothing; 4 micro-states carried a zero that no authoritative source could confirm, and are now listed as unverified instead of scored.

The United States ranks 111th of 190

Federal law sets neither a minimum notice period nor statutory severance for an individual redundancy, so the US scores 0.0 wk. The at-will default is the outlier, not the norm: the median scored country owes 15.3 wk.

Asia carries the highest average exit cost

Its 47 scored countries average 19.7 weeks of salary, against 10.8 weeks across 9 countries in Oceania.

Most of the cost is severance, not notice

In 126 of 190 scored countries the severance payment is larger than the notice period; in 54 the notice period dominates. The two are not interchangeable: notice is time you keep paying someone who is still employed, severance is a lump sum on the way out.

7 countries require a quarter of a year of notice or more

Long notice periods change hiring plans as much as the money does, because the role stays on the books and the exit date is fixed by statute rather than by the business.

What that costs on a real salary

Weeks of salary are the honest unit for a comparison across 190 countries, but nobody budgets in weeks. Enter a salary and the index converts it: total weeks divided by 52, multiplied by the salary. Nothing is converted between currencies, so the answer comes back in whatever currency the salary was entered in.

Annual salary

Any currency. Results come back in the same currency as the salary you entered.

Country

All 190 scored countries and territories.

Comparison	Weeks of salary	Statutory separation cost
Eritrea 3.1 wk notice plus 12.3 wk severance, ranked 57 of 190	15.4 wk	20,731
Median scored country The midpoint of all 190 scored countries and territories	15.3 wk	20,596
The zero club 2 places set no statutory notice and no statutory severance	0.0 wk	0

Weeks of salary divided by 52 and multiplied by the salary entered. No currency conversion is applied and no exchange rate is assumed. This is the statutory floor for a redundancy dismissal only: it excludes employer social contributions on the payout, accrued leave, notice served as worked time rather than pay, court awards, and anything a contract or collective agreement adds on top.

By region

Mean total weeks of salary owed per scored country, grouped by continent. Averages hide wide spreads, so the highest single value in each region is shown alongside.

Region	Countries scored	Average weeks	Highest
Asia	47	19.7	58.5
Americas	37	18.0	36.0
Africa	51	17.7	50.5
Europe	46	13.1	23.7
Oceania	9	10.8	32.4

Five bands, not one long list

A rank tells you the order. It does not tell you whether the gap between two countries changes a decision. These five bands cut the same total-weeks metric at fixed points, so each one describes a different kind of hiring risk. Every country sits in exactly one, and every count below is counted from the data. The zero band is a verified zero: 4 countries whose stored zero no source could confirm were removed from the scored set rather than counted as costing nothing.

The zero club2 · no statutory cost Light13 · above zero, under 5 weeks Standard78 · 5 to 15 weeks Heavy83 · above 15 up to 30 weeks Extreme14 · above 30 weeks

The zero club: no statutory cost

2 of 190 · 1% of the index

Statute asks for nothing. 2 of the 190 scored countries and territories set neither a minimum notice period nor a minimum severance payment on a redundancy dismissal, which is 1 percent of the index. That does not make an exit free: it makes the entire cost contractual, so what an employer pays is set by the employment contract, any collective agreement, and the negotiation, with no statutory floor underneath it.

In this band: New Zealand 0.0, United States 0.0

Light: above zero, under 5 weeks

13 of 190 · 7% of the index

Something is owed, but not much. 13 places sit above zero and under five weeks of salary, led by Italy at 4.5 weeks. At this level the statutory bill is closer to a rounding item on a hiring budget than a constraint on it, and in every one of them the notice period is the larger half of the obligation.

In this band: Italy 4.5, Central African Republic 4.3, Djibouti 4.3, Japan 4.3, Jordan 4.3, Romania 4.0, Kiribati 3.7, Samoa 3.3, Nigeria 3.2, Brunei 3.0, Guernsey 3.0, Singapore 3.0, Austria 2.0

Standard: 5 to 15 weeks

78 of 190 · 41% of the index

Five to fifteen weeks of salary, or roughly one to three and a half months of pay. This is the working middle of the index with 78 countries and territories, 41 percent of the scored set, running from Bermuda at 15.0 weeks down to Hong Kong at 5.7 weeks. Severance is the larger component in 43 of them and notice in 29, which matters for planning: notice is time you keep paying somebody who is still on the books, severance is a payment on the way out.

Costliest in this band: Bermuda 15.0, Solomon Islands 15.0, Nicaragua 14.9, Senegal 14.8, Madagascar 14.7, Eswatini 14.6, Ireland 14.4, North Macedonia 14.4 and 70 more in the full ranking.

Heavy: above 15 up to 30 weeks

83 of 190 · 44% of the index

Above fifteen weeks and up to thirty, so between three and a half and seven months of salary before anything is negotiated. 83 countries and territories land here, 44 percent of the index, topped by Turkey at 29.8 weeks. Severance leads in 69 of them. At this level the exit cost is large enough to belong in the business case for the hire rather than in a footnote to it. The median of the whole index, 15.3 weeks, falls in this band.

Costliest in this band: Turkey 29.8, Paraguay 29.4, Kuwait 28.1, Ethiopia 27.7, Chile 27.4, China 27.4, Israel 27.4, Mozambique 27.4 and 75 more in the full ranking.

Extreme: above 30 weeks

14 of 190 · 7% of the index

Above thirty weeks of salary, which is more than seven months of pay owed by law to end one employment relationship. 14 countries and territories qualify, led by Sri Lanka at 58.5 weeks, about 13.5 months. Severance is the larger component in 14 of them, so the money is a lump sum at the exit rather than a long paid notice period, and it typically scales with how long the person stayed.

In this band: Sri Lanka 58.5, Zambia 50.5, Egypt 39.7, Equatorial Guinea 38.6, Bolivia 36.0, Zimbabwe 34.6, Laos 34.1, Indonesia 33.2, Vanuatu 32.4, Ecuador 31.8, Thailand 31.7, Argentina 30.3, Honduras 30.3, São Tomé and Príncipe 30.3

Full ranking

All 190 scored countries and territories, ordered by total weeks of salary owed. Notice and severance are the sourced statutory inputs; the percentile columns show where each component sits within this edition, and the composite is the percentile of the total. Tied totals share a rank, so the highest rank number is smaller than the row count. The list is complete, not truncated. Employer contributions are collected context, not part of the score. Every row has a permalink: link to any country as #<iso2>, for example #de.

Rank	Country	Total weeks	Notice wks	Severance wks	Composite	Notice pct	Severance pct	Employer SSC
1	Sri Lanka	58.5 wk	4.3 wk	54.2 wk	100	26	100	15%
2	Zambia	50.5 wk	4.3 wk	46.2 wk	100	26	100	6%
3	Egypt	39.7 wk	13.0 wk	26.7 wk	99	97	96	18.8%
4	Equatorial Guinea	38.6 wk	4.3 wk	34.3 wk	98	26	99	21.5%
5	Bolivia	36.0 wk	12.9 wk	23.1 wk	98	96	85	16.7%
6	Zimbabwe	34.6 wk	11.5 wk	23.1 wk	97	95	85	4.5%
7	Laos	34.1 wk	6.4 wk	27.7 wk	97	67	97	6%
8	Indonesia	33.2 wk	0.0 wk	33.2 wk	96	0	98	10.2%
9	Vanuatu	32.4 wk	9.3 wk	23.1 wk	96	89	85	4%
10	Ecuador	31.8 wk	0.0 wk	31.8 wk	95	0	98	10.4%
11	Thailand	31.7 wk	4.3 wk	27.4 wk	95	26	97	5%
12	Argentina	30.3 wk	7.2 wk	23.1 wk	93	70	85	28.3%
12	Honduras	30.3 wk	7.2 wk	23.1 wk	93	70	85	7%
12	São Tomé and Príncipe	30.3 wk	4.3 wk	26.0 wk	93	26	95	6%
13	Turkey	29.8 wk	6.7 wk	23.1 wk	93	69	85	18.5%
14	Paraguaynote	29.4 wk	10.8 wk	18.6 wk	92	94	78	14%
15	Kuwait	28.1 wk	13.0 wk	15.1 wk	92	97	70	10.5%
16	Ethiopianote	27.7 wk	8.7 wk	19.0 wk	91	79	79	11%
17	Chile	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	5.8%
17	China	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	26.5%
17	Israel note	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	6.3%
17	Mozambique	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	4%
17	Oman	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	13.5%
17	Palestine	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	-
17	Philippines	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	14.5%
17	Somalia	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	-
17	South Korea	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	11.1%
17	South Sudan	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	17%
17	Yemen	27.4 wk	4.3 wk	23.1 wk	85	26	85	13%
18	Bangladesh	27.2 wk	4.3 wk	22.9 wk	84	26	83	0%
18	Nepal	27.2 wk	4.3 wk	22.9 wk	84	26	83	30%
18	Pakistan	27.2 wk	4.3 wk	22.9 wk	84	26	83	11%
19	Guatemalanote	27.0 wk	0.0 wk	27.0 wk	83	0	96	10.7%
20	Dominican Republic	26.2 wk	4.0 wk	22.2 wk	83	23	82	15.4%
21	Guinea-Bissau	26.0 wk	0.0 wk	26.0 wk	82	0	95	16%
21	Sudan	26.0 wk	4.3 wk	21.7 wk	82	26	81	23%
22	Liberia	25.6 wk	4.3 wk	21.3 wk	81	26	80	6%
23	Malaysia	23.9 wk	6.7 wk	17.2 wk	80	69	75	14.4%
24	Saudi Arabia	23.8 wk	8.6 wk	15.2 wk	79	78	71	11.8%
24	Timor-Leste	23.8 wk	3.6 wk	20.2 wk	79	19	79	6%
25	Moldovanote	23.7 wk	8.7 wk	15.0 wk	78	79	70	24%
25	Puerto Rico	23.7 wk	0.0 wk	23.7 wk	78	0	94	7.7%
26	Qatar	23.2 wk	7.2 wk	16.0 wk	78	70	74	14%
27	Iran	23.1 wk	0.0 wk	23.1 wk	77	0	85	23%
27	Myanmar	23.1 wk	4.3 wk	18.8 wk	77	26	78	3%
28	El Salvador	22.9 wk	0.0 wk	22.9 wk	76	0	83	16.3%
29	United Arab Emirates	22.4 wk	4.3 wk	18.1 wk	76	26	77	12.5%
30	Mexico	22.0 wk	0.0 wk	22.0 wk	75	0	82	10.8%
31	Belarus	21.7 wk	8.7 wk	13.0 wk	74	79	64	34.3%
31	Tajikistan	21.7 wk	8.7 wk	13.0 wk	74	79	64	20%
32	Afghanistan	21.6 wk	4.3 wk	17.3 wk	73	26	76	-
32	Germany	21.6 wk	10.0 wk	11.6 wk	73	90	60	20.9%
32	Luxembourg	21.6 wk	17.3 wk	4.3 wk	73	99	19	13.7%
33	Tunisia	21.5 wk	4.3 wk	17.2 wk	72	26	75	15.4%
34	Albania	20.8 wk	10.1 wk	10.7 wk	71	91	54	16.7%
34	Uruguay	20.8 wk	0.0 wk	20.8 wk	71	0	80	12.5%
35	Morocco	20.6 wk	7.2 wk	13.4 wk	70	70	67	20.1%
36	Trinidad and Tobago	20.5 wk	6.4 wk	14.1 wk	70	67	68	8.8%
37	Botswana	20.3 wk	3.5 wk	16.8 wk	69	19	75	0%
37	Czechia	20.3 wk	8.7 wk	11.6 wk	69	79	60	33.8%
38	Belgium note	19.7 wk	19.7 wk	0.0 wk	68	100	0	27.2%
39	Libya	19.5 wk	4.3 wk	15.2 wk	68	26	71	14.3%
40	Dominica	19.4 wk	10.1 wk	9.3 wk	67	91	50	7.3%
41	Cambodianote	19.3 wk	7.9 wk	11.4 wk	67	76	58	4.1%
42	Denmark note	18.8 wk	18.8 wk	0.0 wk	65	100	0	0.7%
42	Poland	18.8 wk	10.1 wk	8.7 wk	65	91	42	16.3%
42	Slovakia	18.8 wk	11.6 wk	7.2 wk	65	95	35	32.2%
43	Costa Rica	18.7 wk	4.3 wk	14.4 wk	65	26	69	24.6%
44	Panama	18.1 wk	0.0 wk	18.1 wk	64	0	77	14.5%
45	Angola	17.9 wk	4.3 wk	13.6 wk	64	26	68	8%
46	Russia	17.4 wk	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	62	79	42	30.2%
46	Uzbekistan	17.4 wk	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	62	79	42	12.1%
47	Algeria	17.3 wk	4.3 wk	13.0 wk	60	26	64	25.3%
47	Cape Verde	17.3 wk	2.1 wk	15.2 wk	60	12	71	15%
47	Kyrgyzstan	17.3 wk	4.3 wk	13.0 wk	60	26	64	17.3%
47	Rwanda	17.3 wk	4.3 wk	13.0 wk	60	26	64	12.8%
47	Spain	17.3 wk	2.1 wk	15.2 wk	60	12	71	30.6%
48	Portugal	17.0 wk	7.9 wk	9.1 wk	59	76	49	23.8%
48	Saint Lucia	17.0 wk	3.7 wk	13.3 wk	59	20	67	5%
49	Colombia	16.7 wk	0.0 wk	16.7 wk	58	0	74	16.5%
50	Malawi	16.6 wk	4.3 wk	12.3 wk	58	26	62	10%
51	Cameroon	16.3 wk	11.6 wk	4.7 wk	57	95	24	12.9%
52	Antigua and Barbuda	16.2 wk	3.4 wk	12.8 wk	56	18	64	12%
52	Barbados	16.2 wk	3.7 wk	12.5 wk	56	20	63	11.8%
53	Burundi	15.9 wk	8.7 wk	7.2 wk	54	79	35	9%
53	Greece	15.9 wk	0.0 wk	15.9 wk	54	0	73	21.8%
53	Netherlands	15.9 wk	8.7 wk	7.2 wk	54	79	35	12.6%
53	Niger	15.9 wk	4.3 wk	11.6 wk	54	26	60	16.4%
54	India	15.7 wk	4.3 wk	11.4 wk	53	26	58	12%
54	Kenya	15.7 wk	4.3 wk	11.4 wk	53	26	58	6%
55	Republic of the Congo	15.6 wk	8.7 wk	6.9 wk	52	79	33	20.3%
56	Brazil	15.5 wk	6.6 wk	8.9 wk	52	69	48	28.8%
57	Eritrea	15.4 wk	3.1 wk	12.3 wk	50	15	62	-
57	Gabon	15.4 wk	10.8 wk	4.6 wk	50	94	23	20.1%
57	Taiwan	15.4 wk	3.8 wk	11.6 wk	50	22	60	14.6%
58	Croatia	15.1 wk	7.9 wk	7.2 wk	49	76	35	16.5%
58	Vietnam	15.1 wk	6.4 wk	8.7 wk	49	67	42	21.5%
59	Bermuda	15.0 wk	4.3 wk	10.7 wk	48	26	54	5%
59	Solomon Islands	15.0 wk	4.3 wk	10.7 wk	48	26	54	7.5%
60	Nicaragua	14.9 wk	0.0 wk	14.9 wk	48	0	69	20%
61	Senegal	14.8 wk	4.3 wk	10.5 wk	47	26	53	23.9%
62	Madagascar	14.7 wk	5.8 wk	8.9 wk	47	64	48	18%
63	Eswatini	14.6 wk	5.9 wk	8.7 wk	46	65	42	5%
64	Ireland	14.4 wk	3.7 wk	10.7 wk	44	20	54	11.2%
64	North Macedonia	14.4 wk	4.3 wk	10.1 wk	44	26	53	1.2%
64	Sweden	14.4 wk	14.4 wk	0.0 wk	44	98	0	31.4%
65	Lesotho	14.3 wk	3.6 wk	10.7 wk	44	19	54	0%
66	Aruba	14.0 wk	8.7 wk	5.3 wk	42	79	27	25.3%
66	Jamaica	14.0 wk	4.0 wk	10.0 wk	42	23	52	3%
66	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	14.0 wk	4.0 wk	10.0 wk	42	23	52	5.5%
67	Azerbaijan	13.7 wk	6.3 wk	7.4 wk	41	66	40	24.5%
67	Comoros	13.7 wk	8.7 wk	5.0 wk	41	79	25	-
68	Bahrain	13.6 wk	4.3 wk	9.3 wk	40	26	50	21%
68	Mali	13.6 wk	4.3 wk	9.3 wk	40	26	50	17.9%
69	Hungary	13.4 wk	6.2 wk	7.2 wk	40	66	35	13%
70	Ivory Coast	13.1 wk	5.8 wk	7.3 wk	39	64	39	15.4%
70	Togo	13.1 wk	4.3 wk	8.8 wk	39	26	47	22.5%
71	Armenia	13.0 wk	8.7 wk	4.3 wk	35	79	19	0%
71	Belize	13.0 wk	4.7 wk	8.3 wk	35	60	42	5.5%
71	France	13.0 wk	7.2 wk	5.8 wk	35	70	31	36.3%
71	Iceland	13.0 wk	13.0 wk	0.0 wk	35	97	0	6.3%
71	Latvia	13.0 wk	4.3 wk	8.7 wk	35	26	42	23.6%
71	Lithuania	13.0 wk	4.3 wk	8.7 wk	35	26	42	1.8%
71	Ukraine	13.0 wk	8.7 wk	4.3 wk	35	79	19	22%
72	Andorra	12.9 wk	3.4 wk	9.5 wk	34	18	51	15.5%
72	Estonia	12.9 wk	8.6 wk	4.3 wk	34	78	19	33.8%
73	Bahamas	12.7 wk	2.0 wk	10.7 wk	33	10	54	5.9%
74	Grenada	12.5 wk	7.2 wk	5.3 wk	32	70	27	7%
74	Papua New Guinea	12.5 wk	3.3 wk	9.2 wk	32	16	49	8.4%
75	Chad	12.3 wk	6.5 wk	5.8 wk	32	68	31	16.5%
76	Mauritania	11.9 wk	4.3 wk	7.6 wk	31	26	40	20%
76	Seychelles	11.9 wk	4.3 wk	7.6 wk	31	26	40	5%
77	Australia	11.7 wk	3.0 wk	8.7 wk	30	13	42	12%
78	Benin	11.6 wk	4.3 wk	7.3 wk	30	26	39	16.4%
79	Kosovo	11.5 wk	4.3 wk	7.2 wk	29	26	35	8.5%
80	Peru	11.4 wk	0.0 wk	11.4 wk	29	0	58	9%
81	Guyana	11.3 wk	4.3 wk	7.0 wk	28	26	34	8.4%
82	British Virgin Islands	11.2 wk	4.3 wk	6.9 wk	27	26	33	8.3%
82	Montenegro	11.2 wk	4.3 wk	6.9 wk	27	26	33	6%
83	Iraq	10.7 wk	0.0 wk	10.7 wk	27	0	54	12%
84	Slovenia	10.6 wk	5.3 wk	5.3 wk	26	61	27	16.6%
85	Burkina Faso	10.4 wk	4.3 wk	6.1 wk	25	26	32	16%
86	Isle of Man	10.3 wk	5.3 wk	5.0 wk	24	61	25	12.8%
86	Jersey	10.3 wk	5.3 wk	5.0 wk	24	61	25	6.5%
87	Finland	10.1 wk	10.1 wk	0.0 wk	22	91	0	20.5%
87	Guinea	10.1 wk	4.3 wk	5.8 wk	22	26	31	18%
87	Haiti	10.1 wk	10.1 wk	0.0 wk	22	91	0	11%
87	Switzerland	10.1 wk	10.1 wk	0.0 wk	22	91	0	6.4%
88	Canada	10.0 wk	5.0 wk	5.0 wk	22	61	25	9.6%
89	Fiji	9.6 wk	4.3 wk	5.3 wk	21	26	27	10%
90	New Caledonia	9.4 wk	7.2 wk	2.2 wk	21	70	18	36.5%
91	South Africa	9.3 wk	4.0 wk	5.3 wk	19	23	27	2%
91	Tanzania	9.3 wk	4.0 wk	5.3 wk	19	23	27	10.5%
91	United Kingdom	9.3 wk	5.3 wk	4.0 wk	19	61	19	15%
92	Bosnia and Herzegovina	9.2 wk	2.0 wk	7.2 wk	19	10	35	12%
93	Mauritius	8.9 wk	4.3 wk	4.6 wk	18	26	23	5.5%
94	Suriname	8.8 wk	0.0 wk	8.8 wk	18	0	47	7.5%
95	Lebanon	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	22.5%
95	Liechtenstein	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	16.1%
95	Norway	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	13%
95	Saint Kitts and Nevis	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	6%
95	Syria	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	17.1%
95	Uganda	8.7 wk	8.7 wk	0.0 wk	14	79	0	10%
96	Bulgaria	8.6 wk	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	12	26	19	18.9%
96	Georgia	8.6 wk	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	12	26	19	2%
96	Kazakhstan	8.6 wk	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	12	26	19	8.1%
96	Mongolia	8.6 wk	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	12	26	19	12.2%
97	Namibia	8.5 wk	3.2 wk	5.3 wk	12	15	27	0.9%
98	Bhutan	8.3 wk	8.3 wk	0.0 wk	11	77	0	5%
99	Serbia	7.7 wk	0.0 wk	7.7 wk	11	0	41	15.2%
100	DR Congo	7.3 wk	7.3 wk	0.0 wk	10	75	0	13%
100	Malta	7.3 wk	7.3 wk	0.0 wk	10	75	0	10%
101	Maldives	7.2 wk	7.2 wk	0.0 wk	9	70	0	7%
102	Cyprus	5.7 wk	5.7 wk	0.0 wk	8	64	0	11.2%
102	Hong Kong	5.7 wk	4.3 wk	1.4 wk	8	26	18	5%
103	Italy	4.5 wk	4.5 wk	0.0 wk	7	60	0	31.6%
104	Central African Republic	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	0.0 wk	5	26	0	19%
104	Djibouti	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	0.0 wk	5	26	0	15.7%
104	Japan	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	0.0 wk	5	26	0	15.7%
104	Jordan	4.3 wk	4.3 wk	0.0 wk	5	26	0	14.3%
105	Romania	4.0 wk	4.0 wk	0.0 wk	5	23	0	2.3%
106	Kiribati	3.7 wk	3.7 wk	0.0 wk	4	20	0	7.5%
107	Samoa	3.3 wk	3.3 wk	0.0 wk	4	16	0	11%
108	Nigeria	3.2 wk	3.2 wk	0.0 wk	3	15	0	12%
109	Brunei	3.0 wk	3.0 wk	0.0 wk	2	13	0	8.5%
109	Guernsey	3.0 wk	3.0 wk	0.0 wk	2	13	0	6.8%
109	Singapore	3.0 wk	3.0 wk	0.0 wk	2	13	0	17%
110	Austria	2.0 wk	2.0 wk	0.0 wk	1	10	0	27.6%
111	New Zealand	0.0 wk	0.0 wk	0.0 wk	0	0	0	4.2%
111	United States	0.0 wk	0.0 wk	0.0 wk	0	0	0	8.1%

Notes on 8 of these figures

Each of these totals is correct under the index definition and still looks wrong at first reading, because the statute behind it does something the per-year rate does not show. The mechanism is stated here rather than left for a reader to reconstruct.

Paraguay · 29.4 wk: Art.91 alone, at 15 daily wages per year of service, would give 11.4 weeks. The figure shown reflects art.94 estabilidad: a worker with 10 or more years of service cannot be dismissed without cause and the indemnity doubles. It is the only country in the top 40 where crossing a tenure threshold doubles the award.
Ethiopia · 27.7 wk: Two entitlements are combined here. Severance runs 30 days of wages for the first year plus 10 days for each additional year, and a redundancy dismissal adds a further 60 days of wages on top, which is why Ethiopia sits above countries with a nominally similar per-year rate.
Israel · 27.4 wk: The Severance Pay Law 1963 sets one month per year of service, which is the figure shown. Most employers discharge that obligation through the section 14 pension-fund arrangement, funded monthly during employment, so the cash actually paid at termination is usually lower than the headline implies.
Guatemala · 27.0 wk: Código de Trabajo art.82 sets one month of salary per year of service, which is 23.1 weeks on this tenure basis. The figure shown is higher because Guatemala pays a 14-month annual salary: the aguinaldo and the bono 14 are part of the base, so the entitlement is scaled by 14/12.
Moldova · 23.7 wk: Art.186 gives one average weekly wage per year worked, with a floor of one average monthly wage, which is 6.4 weeks. The remainder is the second- and third-month payments, which are conditional on the worker still being unemployed when they fall due.
Belgium · 19.7 wk: Belgium sets no statutory severance at all. The entire cost sits in notice: the unified-status scale runs 8 weeks at 1 year of service, 18 weeks at 5, and 33 weeks at 10, paid as notice or as an indemnity in lieu of it.
Cambodia · 19.3 wk: This is an accrued entitlement, not a payment made on the way out. Since the 2018 reform the indemnity of dismissal is prepaid twice a year as a seniority payment during employment, so the marginal cash cost on the termination date is close to zero. The index measures the entitlement, as it does everywhere else.
Denmark · 18.8 wk: Denmark also carries the whole cost in notice, at 3 months under 3 years of service rising to 6 months beyond 9. The severance zero is real at this tenure basis: the Funktionærloven §2a leaving allowance only starts at 12 years of service, and the index measures 1, 5 and 10.

Excluded countries

60 countries and territories are not scored. 53 of them have no sourced value for statutory notice, statutory severance, or both, and we list them rather than fill the gaps with estimates. The other 7 were removed in the August 2026 re-verification because the figure we held for them does not describe current law: 3 where no statutory formula could be established, and 4 where a stored zero could not be verified. Each is named below with the reason.

No statutory formula · 3 countries and territories

No statutory redundancy formula can be established from current law, so any weeks figure would be an imputation rather than a legal entitlement.

Gambia · The Labour Act 2023 replaced the Act the stored figures rest on, and no retrievable rate schedule establishes a statutory redundancy formula.
Ghana · Labour Act 2003 s.65(4) makes redundancy pay subject to negotiation between employer and worker, so no statutory severance formula exists.
Sierra Leone · The Employment Act 2023 replaced the regime the stored severance figure rests on and leaves redundancy pay to negotiation, with no statutory multiplier.

Not verified · 4 countries and territories

No authoritative source establishes a current statutory notice or severance regime, so the stored zero cannot be read as a verified zero.

Marshall Islands · No authoritative source establishes a statutory private-sector notice or severance regime, so the stored zero is unresearched rather than verified.
Micronesia · No authoritative source establishes a statutory private-sector notice or severance regime, so the stored zero is unresearched rather than verified.
Palau · No authoritative source establishes a statutory private-sector notice or severance regime, so the stored zero is unresearched rather than verified.
San Marino · Dismissal indemnities do exist under Law 7/1961 and Law 23/1977 but no rate schedule could be extracted, so the stored zero is not a verified zero.

Country	Missing data
Åland Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
American Samoa	Notice period, Statutory severance
Anguilla	Notice period, Statutory severance
Antarctica	Notice period, Statutory severance
Bouvet Island	Notice period, Statutory severance
British Indian Ocean Territory	Notice period, Statutory severance
Caribbean Netherlands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Cayman Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Christmas Island	Notice period, Statutory severance
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Cook Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Cuba	Notice period, Statutory severance
Curaçao	Notice period, Statutory severance
Falkland Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Faroe Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
French Guiana	Notice period, Statutory severance
French Polynesia	Notice period, Statutory severance
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Gibraltar	Notice period, Statutory severance
Greenland	Notice period, Statutory severance
Guadeloupe	Notice period, Statutory severance
Guam	Notice period, Statutory severance
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Macau	Notice period, Statutory severance
Martinique	Notice period, Statutory severance
Mayotte	Notice period, Statutory severance
Monaco	Statutory severance
Montserrat	Notice period, Statutory severance
Nauru	Notice period, Statutory severance
Niue	Notice period, Statutory severance
Norfolk Island	Notice period, Statutory severance
North Korea	Notice period, Statutory severance
Northern Mariana Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Pitcairn Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Réunion	Notice period, Statutory severance
Saint Barthélemy	Notice period, Statutory severance
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	Notice period, Statutory severance
Saint Martin	Notice period, Statutory severance
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Notice period, Statutory severance
Sint Maarten	Notice period, Statutory severance
South Georgia	Notice period, Statutory severance
Svalbard and Jan Mayen	Notice period, Statutory severance
Tokelau	Notice period, Statutory severance
Tonga	Notice period, Statutory severance
Turkmenistan	Notice period, Statutory severance
Turks and Caicos Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Tuvalu	Notice period, Statutory severance
United States Minor Outlying Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
United States Virgin Islands	Notice period, Statutory severance
Vatican City	Notice period, Statutory severance
Venezuela	Notice period, Statutory severance
Wallis and Futuna	Notice period, Statutory severance
Western Sahara	Notice period, Statutory severance

Use the dataset

The full ranking, both statutory inputs, and the source and as-of date behind every value are open data under CC BY 4.0. Reuse it freely with attribution.

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Cite this dataset

Schuchmann, R. (2026). Termination Cost Index 2026 [Data set]. Employ Borderless. https://employborderless.com/hiring-intelligence/termination-cost-index/

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Everything on this page may be quoted and republished with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Questions about the data, custom cuts, or comment from the author, email [email protected]. We answer fast on deadline.

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Story angles in this edition

Ending the same job costs 58.5 wk of salary by statute in Sri Lanka and 0.0 wk in the United States, a gap set entirely by law rather than by severance policy.
The median scored country owes 15.3 wk of salary, roughly 3.5 months, to end one employment relationship on redundancy grounds.
Asia averages 19.7 weeks against 10.8 for Oceania, the widest regional gap in what the law makes an employer pay to part ways.
2 countries and territories set no statutory notice and no statutory severance, so the entire exit cost is contractual.
The English-speaking economies average 7.6 weeks between them, with 6 of 6 in the cheaper half of the ranking.

How we score it

A country is scored only when it has a sourced, dated value for both statutory notice and statutory severance. The two are already denominated in the same unit, weeks of salary at the same tenure basis, so they are added rather than weighted. The composite is the percentile of that total within the scored set. No estimates, no invented weights, no AI-filled gaps.

Read the full methodology

This index answers one question: what does the exit cost. For what an employee costs for as long as they stay, including employer social contributions, see our Global Employer Burden Index, which is built from the same sourced statutory dataset.

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