Industries
Employment Lawyers for California Tech Workers
Laid off with a deadline on the letter? RSUs on the line, or age quietly screening the reduction-in-force list?
The offer is an opening number, not a final one.
Laid Off? Your Notice Rights Under Cal-WARN
Cal-WARN requires employers with 75 or more employees at an establishment to give 60 days’ written notice before a mass layoff of 50 or more employees in 30 days, or a relocation or closure.
Remote-heavy companies argue about what counts as an “establishment.”
Damages for skipped notice run up to 60 days of back pay and benefits per employee, plus a civil penalty of up to $500 per day.
And for 2026, SB 617 adds required notice content, covering workforce development board coordination and CalFresh information. That is a defect-hunting angle in recent notices.
Federal WARN differs, with a 100-employee threshold, part-time exclusions, and a “faltering company” defense. California is stricter, so we lead with the state statute. See Cal-WARN and layoffs.
The Severance Packet, the Deadline, and the Trap
Under 40: there is no statutory review period. The deadline printed on the letter is negotiating pressure, not law.
40 and over: the ADEA and OWBPA give you 21 days to consider an individual agreement, 45 days in a group layoff, plus 7 days to revoke after signing. A group packet must include a disclosure of the job titles and ages of who was and was not selected, and that exhibit is where age patterns surface.
Signing releases discrimination, retaliation and wage claims you may not know you have. PAGA claims and unwaivable rights survive.
Overtime Pay Calculator
A salaried title does not make you exempt from overtime. Below the 2026 exempt floor of $70,304 a year, the overtime is still owed no matter what your badge says.
What Happens to My RSUs, Options and Bonus?
Unvested equity usually dies at termination under the plan documents, which makes the termination date itself a negotiation item. Extending it past a vesting cliff can be worth more than cash severance.
Earned bonuses and commissions are wages under Labor Code 201 and 204, so an employer cannot forfeit an earned bonus by timing your termination. “Must be employed on the payment date” clauses are contestable where the money was already earned.
Option exercise windows, commonly 90 days, and the ISO tax cliff are worth knowing. Specific tax questions go to a tax professional.
Evidence: grant agreements, plan documents, vesting schedule screenshots, the commission plan, and your offer letter.
Was the Layoff List Clean? Age Discrimination in Reductions in Force
The pattern: a “restructuring” that skews toward employees over 40, backfilled by junior hires or contractors within months.
Proof routes: the OWBPA disclosure exhibit, selection criteria documents, before-and-after org charts, and disparate impact statistics under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the state’s main workplace discrimination law.
FEHA beats the federal ADEA here, with uncapped damages and a five-employee threshold. See age discrimination.
Watch for pregnancy, leave-status and visa-status skews on those lists too. See pregnancy and leave of absence.
The Contractor Who Works Like an Employee
Under the ABC test at Labor Code 2775, a “consultant” doing the company’s core work on the company’s schedule is presumed an employee.
A misclassified tech contractor loses overtime, expense reimbursement (that home office runs on Labor Code 2802), sick leave, and equity eligibility.
Illustrative: a contractor at $60 an hour working 50-hour weeks for a year has roughly $15,600 in unpaid time-and-a-half overtime, before 2802 expenses and penalties.
See misclassification and expense reimbursement.
Where We Fight for Tech Workers
Irvine, our HQ. Orange County tech and life sciences, our home-base market. See Irvine and the Irvine severance review page.
San Francisco, the city and the peninsula. See San Francisco and the SF severance review page.
Deadlines
The 21 or 45-day severance window is the loudest clock. Then FEHA’s 3-year window with the Civil Rights Department, the state agency that handles discrimination complaints, and wage claims at 3 years.
WARN claim limitations are flagged for attorney confirmation.
What to Do Right Now
- Do not sign or verbally accept anything today. The deadline has room in it.
- Save the severance letter, the OWBPA exhibit, your equity grants and the commission plan to a personal drive before access cuts off.
- Screenshot your vesting schedule and next cliff date.
- Write down what was said in the layoff meeting and who ran it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Sign My Severance Agreement?
Not before a review. The offer is an opening number.
Can I Negotiate Severance?
Yes. Leverage lives in your claims, your equity timing, and the company’s need for a clean release.
What Happens to Unvested RSUs?
Plan documents control, and extending the termination date is the play.
Is My Layoff Illegal If No Notice Was Given?
Possibly. Walk the Cal-WARN thresholds and the 60-day back pay remedy.
Everyone laid off was over 40. Coincidence?
The OWBPA exhibit and a disparate impact analysis will tell. Worth a review.
I am a contractor. Do I have any rights?
Likely. The ABC test presumes employment.
Does My Non-Compete Stop Me From Taking a New Job?
Non-competes are void in California under B&P 16600, and employers were required to notify affected employees under AB 1076.
Tell Us What Happened
One business day for a response. You pay nothing unless we win.