Leaving a job: final pay and before you sign
Keep unpaid earnings, leave, notice, statutory payments and an extra settlement offer as separate questions.
Prepared 3 October 2026 · General preparation, with location-specific official links below.
First, find your location
Your work location, employment status and issue determine the applicable route. Open the relevant country and confirm its coverage.
United States
Check where the work took place and the federal, state or local rule. Wage claims and discrimination charges use different services.
- DOL · Wage and Hour complaints ↗
- DOL · State labour offices ↗
- EEOC · Employment discrimination charges ↗
California wage issue? Use the DLSE route for that state.
United Kingdom
Acas covers Great Britain. Northern Ireland has a separate Labour Relations Agency. Check the relevant route and claim deadline.
Canada
First check whether your employer is federally regulated. Otherwise use the relevant province or territory, not Ontario by default. ROE and EI are separate federal services.
- Canada · Federal labour complaint coverage ↗
- Canada · Provincial / territorial labour offices ↗
- Canada · Record of Employment ↗
- Canada · EI application ↗
Ontario provincial employment or British Columbia? These provincial routes are separate from federal employment standards.
Australia
Fair Work Ombudsman deals with national-system pay and minimum entitlements. The Fair Work Commission handles separate dismissal and other applications; verify your coverage and the correct service.
China · Mainland
Use the actual work location and relevant local service. Labour inspection, employment dispute arbitration and social-insurance issues may use different routes; ask 12333 or the local department to confirm.
Gather these facts
- The written termination or resignation date, last working day and the proposed agreement.
- Contract terms, service dates, pay history, leave-year dates and an itemised final-pay statement.
- The stated signature deadline, release clauses, repayment requests and any open complaint reference.
Request a breakdown before a total
Ask what is being paid for work already done and what is conditional on signing. Identify notice pay, unused leave, commissions and bonuses separately. Our settlement tool covers stated scenarios and statutory floors; it cannot price every contractual claim or an individual negotiation.
Check the leave balance and deductions
A displayed annual balance may include future entitlement rather than leave accrued by your departure. Ask for the leave-year dates, accrual method and leave already taken. For a training, equipment or benefit deduction, request the relevant agreement and calculation instead of assuming the deduction is valid or invalid.
Review documents and independent deadlines
Get a copy of the agreement and ask for time to review it. Check restrictions, releases and conditions with an appropriate adviser when disputed. An employer’s reply deadline is not necessarily the legal claim deadline. If an agency is already handling a complaint, discuss a proposed settlement or withdrawal with that agency before changing the claim. In Canada, check ROE and EI separately from the severance discussion.
A worked example
Example: an offer includes earned wages plus an additional payment if you sign a release. Label the two amounts separately, list the unanswered questions, and check the local employment route before deciding. The total by itself does not tell you whether the offer is adequate.
Tools for this problem
Check the current official process
Scope, eligibility, required evidence and filing deadlines differ. Use the official pages above and get appropriate advice about a dispute. These are our practical preparation guides, not official translations or a finding of wrongdoing.
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