WARN Act Notice Requirements by State 2026
How much advance notice a mass layoff or plant closing requires: the federal WARN Act’s 60-day rule and employer thresholds, plus every state that adds its own notice law — with the notice period, what each law covers, and the statute it comes from.
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Federal WARN Act
- Employer size
- 100+ employees
- Notice required
- 60 days
- Citation
- Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 2101–2102; 20 C.F.R. §§ 639.3, 639.5
A covered employer is a business enterprise that employs 100 or more employees excluding part-time employees, or 100 or more employees who in the aggregate work at least 4,000 hours per week (exclusive of overtime). Notice is required for a plant closing — the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment, or of one or more facilities or operating units within a single site, that results in an employment loss during any 30-day period for 50 or more employees excluding part-time employees — and for a mass layoff, a reduction in force that is not the result of a plant closing and results in an employment loss at the single site during any 30-day period for at least 33 percent of the active employees and at least 50 employees (excluding part-time employees), or for at least 500 employees (in which case the 33 percent test does not apply). Notice must be given at least 60 calendar days before the planned plant closing or mass layoff.
Read the statute ↗State notice laws (states with their own law)
| State | Notice | What the law covers | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 60 days | Covers a "covered establishment" that employs, or employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons, and requires 60 days' written notice before a mass layoff of 50 or more employees in any 30-day period, a relocation of operations 100 miles or more away, or a termination of operations. | Cal. Lab. Code §§ 1400–1408 (§ 1400.5 definitions; § 1401 notice) |
| Delaware | 60 days | Covers employers of 100 or more employees excluding part-time employees (or 100 or more employees working at least 2,000 hours per week in the aggregate) and requires 60 days' written notice to affected employees, the Department of Labor and the Workforce Development Board before a plant closing causing 50 or more employment losses in a 30-day period, a mass layoff of 50 or more employees who make up 33% of the workforce, or a layoff of 500 or more employees. | Del. Code tit. 19, §§ 1901–1908 (§ 1903 definitions; § 1904 notice) |
| Hawaii | 60 days | The Dislocated Workers Act applies to businesses with at least 50 persons employed in the State at any time during the preceding 12 months and requires at least 60 days' advance written notice to affected employees and to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations of a closing, partial closing, divestiture or relocation arising from a sale, transfer, merger, takeover, bankruptcy or other business transaction; affected workers who qualify for unemployment compensation may also receive a dislocated worker allowance supplementing benefits for up to 4 weeks. | Haw. Rev. Stat. ch. 394B (Dislocated Workers Act), § 394B-9 |
| Illinois | 60 days | Covers employers of 75 or more employees excluding part-time employees (or 75 or more employees working at least 4,000 hours per week in the aggregate) and requires 60 days' notice before a plant closing causing 50 or more employment losses in a 30-day period or a mass layoff of at least 33% of employees and at least 25 employees, or of 250 or more employees. | Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 820 ILCS 65/5, 65/10 |
| Iowa | 30 days | Iowa's layoff notification law covers employers with 25 or more employees and requires 30 days' written notice to affected employees or their representatives and to Iowa Workforce Development before a business closing or a mass layoff of 25 or more employees for a period exceeding six months. | Iowa Code ch. 84C (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) |
| Maine | 90 days | Maine's severance pay law covers a facility that employs, or employed in the preceding 12-month period, 100 or more persons, requires written notice not less than 90 days before a relocation or closing to the Director of the Bureau of Labor Standards, the employees and municipal officers, and requires severance pay of one week's pay for each year of employment. | Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 26, § 625-B (Severance pay) |
| Maryland | 60 days | Maryland's Economic Stabilization Act covers employers with at least 50 employees operating an industrial, commercial or business enterprise in the State and requires notice at least 60 days before initiating a reduction in operations — a relocation or shutdown that reduces the workforce by at least 25% or 15 employees, whichever is greater, over any 3-month period — to the affected employees, their representatives, the Division's dislocated worker unit and the local chief elected official. | Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. §§ 11-301, 11-305 |
| Michigan | — | Not published in a form we could verify — confirm with the state labor department. | — |
| Nebraska | 90 days | The Nebraska Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, adopted by LB 921 (2026), covers employers of 100 or more employees excluding part-time employees and bars a business closing or mass layoff causing an employment loss for 100 or more employees until 90 days after the employer serves written notice on the affected employees or their representatives and the Department of Labor, unless a collective bargaining agreement sets a different notice period. | Nebraska Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, LB 921 (2026), §§ 1–6 |
| Nevada | — | Not published in a form we could verify — confirm with the state labor department. | — |
| New Hampshire | 60 days | The New Hampshire Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act covers employers of 100 or more employees in New Hampshire excluding part-time employees (or 100 or more employees working at least 3,000 hours per week in the aggregate) and requires 60 days' written notice to affected employees, the commissioner, the attorney general and local officials before a plant closing causing 50 or more employment losses in a 30-day period or a mass layoff affecting at least 250 employees, or at least 25 employees where they are 33% of the full-time workforce. | N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 275-F |
| New Jersey | 90 days | The Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act requires an employer of 100 or more employees to give not less than 90 days' notice (or the federal WARN period, whichever is longer) to the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, the local chief elected official, each affected employee and any bargaining units before a transfer or termination of operations terminating 50 or more employees within 30 days or a mass layoff of 50 or more employees, and to pay each terminated employee severance of one week of pay per full year of employment, plus four additional weeks if notice was short. | N.J. Stat. Ann. §§ 34:21-1, 34:21-2 |
| New York | 90 days | The New York State WARN Act covers employers of 50 or more employees excluding part-time employees (or 50 or more employees working at least 2,000 hours per week in the aggregate) and requires at least 90 days' written notice to affected employees, their representatives, the Department of Labor, local workforce boards and local officials before a plant closing causing 25 or more employment losses in a 30-day period, a mass layoff affecting at least 33% of employees and at least 25 employees or at least 250 employees, or a relocation of operations 50 miles or more away. | N.Y. Labor Law §§ 860-a, 860-b |
| North Dakota | 2 days | North Dakota has no WARN-style advance-notice act, but its unemployment insurance rules require an employer with advance knowledge of a mass separation — the layoff of 25 or more workers in a single establishment permanently, for an indefinite period, or for an expected duration of seven days or more — to file notice with the nearest public employment service office 48 hours before the mass separation begins (or within 48 hours after, when there was no advance knowledge). | N.D. Admin. Code § 27-03-02-02 (Mass separations) |
| Ohio | — | Not published in a form we could verify — confirm with the state labor department. | — |
| Tennessee | see note | Tennessee's Plant Closing and Reduction in Operations Act applies to employers with at least 50 but not more than 99 full-time employees at a Tennessee workplace and requires the employer, upon notifying affected employees of a reduction in operations that permanently or indefinitely cuts 50 or more employees during any three-month period, to then notify the commissioner of labor and workforce development — the state act sets no advance-notice day count of its own. | Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 50-1-601, 50-1-602 |
| Vermont | 45 days | Vermont's Notice of Potential Layoffs Act covers employers with 50 or more full-time employees (or 50 or more part-time employees working at least 1,040 hours each per year) and requires notice 45 days before a business closing or a mass layoff of 50 or more employees over a 90-day period to the Secretary of Commerce and Community Development and the Commissioner of Labor, and 30 days' notice to the affected employees, any bargaining agent and the local chief elected official. | Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 21, §§ 411, 413 |
| Washington | 60 days | Washington's mass layoffs and business closings law covers employers with 50 or more full-time employees at a single worksite and requires 60 days' advance written notice to the Employment Security Department and to affected employees or their bargaining representative before a facility closure affecting 50 or more full-time employees, a mass layoff of 50 or more full-time workers in a 30-day period, or a reduction of hours of more than 50% for 50 or more workers in each month of a six-month period. | Wash. Rev. Code ch. 49.45 (Mass Layoffs and Business Closings) |
| Wisconsin | 60 days | Wisconsin's business closing and mass layoff notification law covers any business enterprise that employs 50 or more persons in the state and requires written notice no later than 60 days before a business closing affecting 25 or more employees or a mass layoff affecting at least 25% of the workforce or 25 employees, whichever is greater, or at least 500 employees, to the affected employees, any bargaining representative, the Department of Workforce Development and the local municipal official. | Wis. Stat. § 109.07 |
Notice periods are the statutory minimums for covered employers; coverage thresholds, counting rules, and exceptions differ by state, and a few states impose severance or benefit-continuation duties alongside notice. Whether a particular layoff was covered — and what follows if notice was short — is a question for an employment attorney. This table is not legal advice.
Verified 2026-07-31 against WARN Act, 20 CFR Part 639 + state mini-WARN statutes (per-row citations) (effective 2026-01-01)
Estimate only — not legal, tax, or financial advice. Only DOL-ETA can determine your actual amounts.
Official source: U.S. Department of Labor — WARN Act ↗
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A reference table of advance-notice requirements for mass layoffs and plant closings: the federal WARN Act thresholds, and every state that adds its own notice law on top.
How it works
The federal layer is transcribed from 29 U.S.C. §§ 2101–2102 and 20 C.F.R. Part 639 — 100 or more employees, 60 calendar days, with plant-closing and mass-layoff triggers. Each state row was checked against that state’s own statute or labor department; sixteen jurisdictions have a notice law, and the rest are recorded as having none rather than left blank. Three states whose statutes could not be retrieved say so instead of showing a figure.
Getting the most from it
- Read the federal panel first — it applies in every state.
- Find your state in the table; the default view shows only states with their own law.
- Check the notice period alongside what the law actually covers, since thresholds differ.
- Open the citation link for the statutory text before relying on any figure.
Reading your result
A longer state period does not replace the federal one — employers must satisfy both, so the longer notice effectively governs. Notice periods are minimums for covered employers, and coverage turns on employee counts and how the separations are grouped in time.
What it can't tell you
This is a notice reference, not an assessment of any particular layoff. Coverage thresholds, counting rules, and exceptions such as unforeseeable business circumstances decide whether a law applied, and a few states add severance or benefit-continuation duties this table only summarises. It is not legal advice — an employment attorney can evaluate a specific situation.
Frequently asked questions
The federal WARN Act requires 60 calendar days’ advance written notice from employers with 100 or more employees, for a plant closing affecting 50 or more workers or a mass layoff affecting at least a third of the workforce and 50 people, or 500 people regardless of proportion.
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