Oracle vs Microsoft vs Salesforce Severance Packages: What Employees Are Getting After Layoffs

Tech workers who lost their jobs this year are learning that where they worked matters as much as how long. Oracle, Microsoft, and Salesforce have all cut staff during 2026, and the severance each is handing departing US employees ranges from as little as four weeks of base pay to as much as 39 weeks.

The gap came back into focus this week. Oracle began a fresh round of job cuts on Monday, 14 September, telling affected staff by email that the day they were notified would be their 'last working day'.

According to Business Insider, which reviewed the internal documents, the company is offering US employees four weeks of base salary plus one additional week for every year of service.

The latest Oracle documents do not state a maximum payout. Its standard severance plan, reported earlier this year, had capped the total at 26 weeks of base pay. Oracle has not commented publicly on the terms.

How the Severance Terms Compare

Salesforce sits in the middle. When it began notifying staff of cuts in June, the packages ran from nine to 30 weeks of base pay, calculated on job level, tenure, and age, Business Insider reported. Directors and senior directors qualified for 13 weeks, senior managers and those below for nine, with three additional weeks for every year of service. Employees aged 60 and above received a further four weeks.

The total was capped at 26 weeks, or 30 weeks for older workers, alongside six months of COBRA health cover that extended to a year for the over-60s. The cuts landed as Salesforce shares fell more than 30 per cent across the year and the company pushed staff towards its Agentforce artificial intelligence products.

Microsoft's package is the largest of the three. The company eliminated roughly 4,800 roles on 6 July, about 2.1 per cent of its global workforce. Laid-off US staff were offered a minimum of 60 days of base pay and a maximum of 39 weeks, scaled to seniority and length of service. Seniority set the rate: staff at internal level 64 and below earned one week of pay for every six months worked, while those at levels 65 to 67 earned two weeks for the same period.

Executives fell under a separate arrangement. Microsoft also kept stock vesting running for six to 12 months after departure and provided six months of employer-paid health insurance, followed by an optional year of COBRA cover. It was Microsoft's third major round of cuts in under two years, after more than 15,000 losses in 2025 and voluntary buyouts for about 9,000 staff earlier in 2026.

Why the Severance Gap Traces Back to AI

The common thread is artificial intelligence. Each company has been trimming payroll while pouring money into AI systems and data centres, and the cash strain is clearest at Oracle. It spent $55.7B (£41B) on capital projects in its 2026 financial year and has guided to capital spending of $90B to $95B (£67B to £70B) in 2027.

Bloomberg has reported that Oracle's restructuring programme could cost about $2.8B (£2.1B), more than the roughly $2.1B (£1.55B) already booked, with severance making up much of the bill.

The headcount toll has been heaviest there, too. Oracle shed about 21,000 jobs in the year to 31 May, a 13 per cent reduction that left it with around 141,000 employees worldwide before this month's round. Internal documents indicated some units could lose more than a tenth of their staff, though Oracle has not confirmed the scale of the September cuts.

For the people signing the paperwork, the figures carry a condition. Severance at each firm is paid in exchange for a release waiving the right to sue, which means the choice is rarely as simple as the headline number. On that number alone, a laid-off Microsoft employee stands to leave with far more than an Oracle counterpart of the same tenure.