# No Severance pay for Officer Wilson
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 1, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002 "2014-12-01T03:20:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/1 "2014-12-01T03:20:42Z")
That’ll teach the guy a lesson for killing one of Ferguson’s upstanding citizens. 😛
Oh wait, by law they have to pay him any overtime and vacation hours on the books. COBRA benefits are automatic.
He’s getting the standard severance pay for any employee that resigns or is terminated. We process these people every payroll at work. Job performance isn’t a factor. You get severance pay.
The honorable Mayor James Knowles is full of crap. imho
> **[Ferguson mayor: No severance pay for Wilson](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/30/ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-resigns-reaction/19697739/)**
>
> Some people are wishing Darren Wilson well; others say he should have faced trial.
> [@](#):
>
> The white police officer who resigned almost four months after fatally shooting a black teen, setting off months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., was not asked to leave — but “it’s best that we continue to move on as a community,” Mayor James Knowles said Sunday.
>
> Knowles said Darren Wilson, who was earning about $45,000 a year, was given no severance when he resigned Saturday, effective immediately. Wilson, 28, had been on paid administrative leave since shooting Michael Brown, 18, following a brief confrontation on a Ferguson street Aug. 9.
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### Author:  [@Don\_Simus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Simus)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/2 "2014-12-01T05:00:39Z")
But he was not a racist or something. Just afraid. And acted inadequately in potentially dangerous situation. Same thing can happen with many participants of this forum.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/3 "2014-12-01T05:29:38Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> Oh wait, by law they have to pay him any **overtime and vacation hours on the books. COBRA benefits** are automatic.
>
> He’s getting the standard severance pay for any employee that resigns or is terminated.
That’s not severance pay; those things are already earned. Severance is what you get _for_ being let go.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/4 "2014-12-01T05:35:44Z")
Is there any place that _does_ give severance pay to entry-level public employees when they quit?
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/5 "2014-12-01T05:41:18Z")
My employer offered early retirement payouts. People that had worked over 20 years were offered deals to retire. We had a few with 30 years on the job that took the offer and the money. A loss in experience for sure.
New hires replacing them start at lower pay. I guess that matters more to my employer.
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/6 "2014-12-01T05:53:01Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#):
>
> That’s not severance pay; those things are already earned. Severance is what you get _for_ being let go.
Exactly - I’m not understanding the issue here.
To me, serverance pay = golden handshake.
An extra payment over and above what is owed to “go peacefully into that dark night”
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/7 "2014-12-01T06:01:33Z")
We’ve always called it severance pay at my job. I think its even discussed in the Emp Handbook. Vacation and overtime hours are paid after termination.
I can’t think of any situation where someone is paid just to quit. Payroll wouldn’t have a term for something they never do.
I mentioned early retirement but thats different.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/8 "2014-12-01T06:04:09Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#):
>
> That’s not severance pay; those things are already earned. Severance is what you get _for_ being let go.
Right. Severance is when you are fired not-for-cause or your post is eliminated. What the Mayor’s statement was meaning to convey was that Wilson would not get any sort of special “go away” payoff. Just the regular cashing out of earned compensations. _Separation_ package.
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/9 "2014-12-01T06:08:19Z")
> [@Don\_Simus](#):
>
> And acted inadequately in potentially dangerous situation. Same thing can happen with many participants of this forum.
Huh? Care to elaborate?
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/10 "2014-12-01T06:16:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> We’ve always called it severance pay at my job. I think its even discussed in the Emp Handbook. Vacation and overtime hours are paid after termination.
>
> I can’t think of any situation where someone is paid just to quit. Payroll wouldn’t have a term for something they never do.
>
> I mentioned early retirement but thats different.
Have seen it lots of time, a phrase like “garden leave” comes close, as does golden handshake, here a simple “compensation in lieu of notice” could also cover it.
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/11 "2014-12-01T07:55:04Z")
He’s been on paid administrative leave for four months. That seems like adequate severance to me. Plus accrued vacation (I guess you accrue vacation during your paid administrative leave) etc.
He’s doing better than most people who quit their jobs
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/12 "2014-12-01T12:01:05Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> Right. Severance is when you are fired not-for-cause or your post is eliminated. What the Mayor’s statement was meaning to convey was that Wilson would not get any sort of special “go away” payoff. Just the regular cashing out of earned compensations. _Separation_ package.
This. Severance pay is when you get laid off, or otherwise asked to leave not-for-cause and they pay you something extra to lessen the blow.
I’ve been at a dying company where a person with a job offer played “chicken” and didn’t say anything in hopes of being laid off and getting severance, because if she just quit she would only get the stuff described in the op.
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### Author:  [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/13 "2014-12-01T15:46:37Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> This. Severance pay is when you get laid off, or otherwise asked to leave not-for-cause and they pay you something extra to lessen the blow.
>
> I’ve been at a dying company where a person with a job offer played “chicken” and didn’t say anything in hopes of being laid off and getting severance, because if she just quit she would only get the stuff described in the op.
I’ve seen severance pay (usually minimal) even in cases of termination for cause, in return for the departing employee signing a release not to sue.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/14 "2014-12-01T15:57:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> We’ve always called it severance pay at my job. I think its even discussed in the Emp Handbook. Vacation and overtime hours are paid after termination.
>
> I can’t think of any situation where someone is paid just to quit. Payroll wouldn’t have a term for something they never do.
>
> I mentioned early retirement but thats different.
You must have a “right to a job for life” mindset. You aren’t being paid to quit.
Payroll does have a term for it and it is done all the time.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/15 "2014-12-01T16:10:24Z")
The guy got over half a million dollars in donations from his admirers last I heard, and no doubt will be offered book deals and the like. He’s not hurting.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/16 "2014-12-01T16:34:49Z")
In my twenty years in my chosen profession, I’ve gotten severance exactly _once_- when I was laid off three months ago. I’ve never even heard of anyone getting severance for quitting.
I suspect this is yet another “poor, persecuted right-wing darling” thread. I wouldn’t worry too much about him if I were you- he’s no doubt already negotiating a sweetheart book deal.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/17 "2014-12-01T16:38:57Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#):
>
> Is there any place that _does_ give severance pay to entry-level public employees when they quit?
In the private sector world, the only time I’ve ever seen severance pay offered was as part of a layoff. You quit, you get nothing. They want you gone, they offer you $x to shut up and go peacefully, not appeal, etc.
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### Author:  [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/18 "2014-12-01T17:04:35Z")
> [@Lightnin](#):
>
> In my twenty years in my chosen profession, I’ve gotten severance exactly _once_- when I was laid off three months ago. I’ve never even heard of anyone getting severance for quitting.
>
> I suspect this is yet another “poor, persecuted right-wing darling” thread.
I didn’t take it that way. I see it as a thread started by somebody who doesn’t know what “severance pay” is which came up in the first place because the Police Chief wanted to head off criticism that he was being given something he didn’t deserve.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/19 "2014-12-01T18:34:11Z")
Severence pay can be all sorts of things- it can be an incentive to prod someone into leaving voluntarily ( perhaps to avoid layoffs of other people- although that’s usually called a buyout , not severance ), it can be given in exchange for an agreement not to sue after termination . You could even call a payment in lieu of notice severence pay. But paying for accrued leave an overtime is not severence pay - Wilson would have received those payments at some point even if he continued employment.
I’m not sure why the mayor made that statement, though . As a public sector worker, it never occured to me that Wilson would receive a severance package ( because they are basically unknown in the public sector) or a pension **until** the mayor made his statement. At that point, I started to think that maybe Missouri is strange, and provides severance and pensions to people who quit with less than 5 years of service.
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### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-severance-pay-for-officer-wilson/706002/20 "2014-12-01T18:39:32Z")
How the hell does somebody who worked in [HR and Payroll for 25 years](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17912754&postcount=145) not know what severance pay is?
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