I’ve been laid off a few times myself, but to my best recollection, if there was any written notice at all it was on regular company letterhead, and I didn’t get anything special enclosed with my last paycheck. So, what is the metaphorical ‘pink slip’, why is it pink. does anyone actually get one and if so, what is written on it?
OK, that says it all. Thanks.
My pleasure. I was very surprised myself to read that it’s such a mystery.
The snopes article doesn’t remark on something that has always been my pet theory. I’ve always assumed it was the color of one of the sheets from a triplicate (or quad) carbon copy form: One copy for personnel, one for the department head and one for the employee.
Of course that’s without any evidence but I was surprised to not see it mentioned.
All the layoff notices I ever got over my 24 years were on white paper, and alwasy along with a spoken statement of the same thing.
However, I’ve been laid on by a lovely woman who was wearing a pink slip. 
The Word Detective claims that they did.
According to the Snopes article “All we know for sure is that the Oxford English Dictionary’s oldest citation for the term “pink slip” comes from a 1915 pulp novel about baseball.”
You might have old-style carbon paper back in 1915 (A sheet with a literal layer of black carbon for making duplicates), but not the modern style multicolor pressure activated non-carbon carbon paper.
There are also multicolored forms with actual carbon paper in them. Just about every job I’ve had (including the current one) used them. If there was colored paper and carbon paper in 1915, no reason it couldn’t have been “white copy to personnel, pink to employee” - and that really does make the most sense to me , because in my experience, it’s always pink to the employee.
Hey you young whippersnapper! I’m old enough to have used carbon paper in high school, for goodness sake. 
I wasn’t thinking of NCR paper for those forms. The forms used to be assembled in triplicate but without carbon paper. The typist would hand insert two sheets of film-backed durable carbons in between the sheets before typing on the forms.
The online OED has a further antedating of the term, back to 1906. But still baseball.
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In the same time frame, the OED has cites from insurance companies that used pink slips to make sure that attention was paid to a rate increase.
.
Now, what does all that mean? I don’t know.
Last time I was laid off from a job (circa 1983), the slip was goldenrod. Those of us being let go joked about getting the golden rod up the ass.
Hey! I’ve used carbon paper and mimeographs! mmmm, the smell of mimeographs!