I built a free Canadian severance calculator because the rules are more confusing than they should be

Mike M — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 13:55:25 +0000

Losing a job is stressful enough. Figuring out what you’re actually owed afterwards shouldn’t require a law degree.

I’m in Canada, and over the last few years, I’ve watched friends, family, and coworkers get tripped up by the same questions after being terminated:

What’s the difference between termination pay and severance pay?
What’s statutory minimum vs. common law?
Why does the answer change depending on provincial or federal rules?
And why does every source seem to contradict the last one?

A number of years ago, I, too, was terminated after double-digit years with my employer and genuinely had no idea whether the number they were giving was reasonable, low, or missing something entirely.

Statutory minimums vs. “what you might get”

One thing that causes a lot of confusion in Canada is that there are two very different conversations happening at once:

Statutory minimums: the legal floor set by employment standards legislation
Common law / negotiated packages: what lawyers may push for based on age, tenure, role, etc.

Most online discussions blur these together, which makes it hard for someone just trying to sanity-check a number.

So I built a small tool

I ended up building a simple calculator that focuses on statutory minimum entitlements only, broken down by province or federal rules.

The goal isn’t to replace legal advice. It’s to give people a baseline so they can ask better questions and understand the floor they’re standing on.

No signup
Plain HTML/JS
Plain-English explanations
Explicit about what it does not cover

If you’re curious, the tool is here:

https://canadaemploymentrules.ca/

Things I learned building this

A few takeaways that surprised me:

Many people don’t realize that termination pay and severance pay are separate concepts.
Benefit continuation is frequently overlooked.
Province-specific rules matter far more than people expect.
Clear disclaimers actually increase trust if written plainly.

I’m still iterating on this, and I’m genuinely interested in how others approach explaining complex, high-stress topics without overwhelming people.

If you’ve built tools in legal, financial, or HR-adjacent spaces, I’d love to hear what’s worked (or failed) for you.

DEV Community: Mike M

I built a free Canadian severance calculator because the rules are more confusing than they should be

Statutory minimums vs. “what you might get”

So I built a small tool

Things I learned building this