If you sell for a living, a layoff notice raises a question salaried workers never face: what happens to commissions you have already earned but not yet been paid? The answer is not in the WARN Act. It is in your written commission plan, your state's wage-payment law, and when each sale counts as "earned."

The WARN Act does not pay your commissions

The federal WARN Act is a notice law, not a payment law. It requires covered employers to give 60 days' advance notice of a mass layoff or plant closing. It does not create a right to severance, bonuses, or commissions. If your employer gave proper notice, WARN has nothing more to say about your pay.

WARN matters in one way: if your employer violated the notice requirement, the remedy is back pay for the violation period, up to 60 days. For a commissioned worker, that back pay is generally calculated from average earnings, which can include commissions.

"Earned" is the word that decides everything

Whether a commission is owed usually turns on the written plan's definition of when a commission is earned. Common definitions include when the sale closes, when the customer pays, or when the product ships or the service starts.

This matters because a layoff often lands between those moments. If you closed a sale in October, the customer pays in December, and your last day is November 30, whether you get paid depends on which definition your plan uses. Read the actual plan document, not the handbook summary, and find the sentence defining when a commission is earned.

State law treats earned commissions as wages

In many states, a commission earned under the plan is a wage, and wage-payment laws require the employer to pay it on the final paycheck or shortly after. California treats commissions as wages once earned. New York's wage-payment law expressly includes commissions in its definition of wages. Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have similar protections.

The consequence: an employer that refuses to pay commissions you already earned is not just breaking a promise — in many states it is violating a wage-payment statute, which can carry penalties and give you a claim with the state labor agency.

The forfeiture trap

Some commission plans say that if you leave — for any reason, including a layoff — before the commission is paid, you forfeit it. These clauses are enforced in some states and restricted in others. California generally does not allow an employer to forfeit wages already earned. If your plan has one, check with your state's labor agency or an employment lawyer before you sign anything.

Commissions during the notice period

If you keep working through the 60-day notice period, commissions you earn during that period are still yours under the plan's normal terms. If the employer puts you on paid leave instead, some plans stop new commission accrual when you stop selling.

Sales that close during the notice period but pay out after your last day are the most common dispute. If the plan says the commission is earned at closing, it is owed even if the customer pays after you are gone. If the plan says it is earned at payment, the timing of the customer's check decides it.

Draws and clawbacks

Some sales jobs pay a recoverable draw — an advance against future commissions. After a layoff, an employer may try to recover an unrecovered draw from your final pay. Whether it can depends on the written draw agreement and state law: in several states, an employer cannot deduct a draw from wages already earned without a clear written agreement, or use a draw to push your pay below the minimum wage. If a clawback appears on your final paycheck, ask for the agreement in writing.

What to do before your last day

  • Get the commission plan in writing. If you only have a summary, ask HR for the full plan document.
  • Save your own records. Screenshots of your sales pipeline, closed deals, and commission statements — once your accounts are cut off, these are hard to reconstruct.
  • Write down what is unpaid. List each deal, its close date, its expected commission, and whether the customer has paid.
  • Read any severance release carefully. Releases often waive wage and commission claims. If it covers "all claims," it may cover unpaid commissions too. Ask whether it excludes earned commissions, and get the answer in writing.
  • Know your state's deadline. Wage claims have filing deadlines. Your state labor agency can tell you the window — do not wait until it closes.

The numbers behind this

As of November 6, 2026, Layoff Atlas tracks 676 WARN notices covering 64,352 reported workers in a 90-day window, with 28 worker counts unavailable. California leads with 20,812 reported workers, followed by Washington with 17,411, Illinois with 3,548, Texas with 2,750, and Virginia with 2,526. The heaviest week ahead is the week of November 13, with 8,850 workers scheduled. These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. Coverage and reporting rules vary by state, and missing source coverage is not zero layoffs.

For sales workers, the lesson is scale: thousands of commission-based workers sit inside those weekly totals — and for each of them, the commission plan, not the WARN Act, decides what is owed.

Data source: Layoff Atlas.