Updated August 7, 2026. Quick answer: if the agreement asks you to release age claims, federal law gives you at least 21 days to consider it — or at least 45 days if you were let go as part of a group — plus at least 7 days to revoke after you sign. Those are floors, not ceilings, and the 7-day revocation window cannot be shortened even if you agree to shorten it.
Which clock you are on: 21 days or 45
The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act sets the minimum. A waiver of age claims is not “knowing and voluntary” unless, among other things, “the individual is given a period of at least 21 days within which to consider the agreement” — or, where the waiver “is requested in connection with an exit incentive or other employment termination program offered to a group or class of employees,” at least 45.
🔴 The group version is the one people misidentify. If several people were let go in the same action, you are probably owed 45 days rather than 21 — and you are owed something else as well, which is the next section and the most valuable paragraph on this page.
The clock also has a defined start: the regulation states that “the 21 or 45 day period runs from the date of the employer’s final offer.” And if the offer materially changes, “material changes to the final offer restart the running of the 21 or 45 day period” — though the parties may agree in advance that changes do not restart it.
If it was a group layoff, you are owed a list — with ages on it
🔴 This is the least-known right in the whole process. When a release is requested as part of a group program, the employer must tell you in writing, at the start of your 45 days:
- “any class, unit, or group of individuals covered by such program, any eligibility factors for such program, and any time limits applicable to such program”; and
- “the job titles and ages of all individuals eligible or selected for the program, and the ages of all individuals in the same job classification or organizational unit who are not eligible or selected for the program.”
The group being compared is called the decisional unit — defined in the regulation as “that portion of the employer’s organizational structure from which the employer chose the persons who would be offered consideration for the signing of a waiver and those who would not.”
Read the list. It is the one document that shows you the age pattern of who was selected and who was not, and it is handed to you precisely because Congress thought you should be able to see it before you sign away the right to complain about it.
What else has to be true for the release to count
The statute sets a floor of conditions, each stated in its own subparagraph. The agreement must be “written in a manner calculated to be understood by such individual”. “The waiver specifically refers to rights or claims arising under this chapter”. “The individual does not waive rights or claims that may arise after the date the waiver is executed”. “The individual is advised in writing to consult with an attorney prior to executing the agreement”. And — the one worth pausing on — “the individual waives rights or claims only in exchange for consideration in addition to anything of value to which the individual already is entitled.”
⚠️ That last condition is a real test, not a formality. If the package is only paying you what a policy or contract already owed you, it is worth asking what you are being paid extra for the release itself.
🔴 And the burden is not yours. The statute puts it plainly: in a dispute over whether these conditions were met, “the party asserting the validity of a waiver shall have the burden of proving… that a waiver was knowing and voluntary.” That is the employer, not you.
The 7 days after you sign are part of the deadline
The agreement must provide that “for a period of at least 7 days following the execution of such agreement, the individual may revoke the agreement, and the agreement shall not become effective or enforceable until the revocation period has expired.”
Two consequences people miss. First, signing does not end the decision — the revocation window does. Second, the regulation states the window “cannot be shortened by the parties, by agreement or otherwise”: you cannot give it away even if you want to, and a clause purporting to shorten it does not do what it says.
Two further things a release cannot reach. It cannot stop you filing a charge: no waiver “may be used to justify interfering with the protected right of an employee to file a charge or participate in an investigation or proceeding conducted by the Commission.” And under the implementing regulation, an employee challenging a waiver as not knowing and voluntary is not required to give the money back first before filing a charge or a lawsuit, nor may an agreement impose that as a condition.
What to actually do with the time
The window exists to let you price the package before you accept it, and pricing is mostly about dates. Put every deadline on paper first — the layoff deadline calendar turns a separation date into the statutory clocks that follow — then work the decisions in order rather than in the order the paperwork arrives: the decision order for 55 to 62.
The items most often worth the remaining days: whether the money is paid as a lump sum or salary continuation and which tax year it lands in (and which state taxes it), whether health coverage runs out before you have chosen a replacement (COBRA versus ACA), and whether anything you are about to do with the retirement plan forecloses something later — the rule of 55 applies to the 401(k) only.
If you want a second opinion on the money before the window closes, what to ask about a severance package covers what a useful conversation looks like and what it should cost.
Sources
Review and revocation windows, the conditions for a knowing and voluntary waiver, the group-program disclosure, and the burden of proof: 29 U.S.C. §626(f)(1)-(4). Start of the consideration period, material changes, the non-waivable revocation window, the decisional unit, and the disclosure contents: 29 CFR §1625.22. Tender back: 29 CFR §1625.23. All read 7 August 2026. General information about statutory deadlines and plan mechanics, not legal or tax advice on your agreement. Your plan documents and your agreement govern, and they may be more generous than the statutory floor.