Sometimes when an employee’s job is terminated and the work relationship is “severed,” the employer provides severance pay or a severance package to compensate the employee for his or her job loss.  There generally is no law requiring employers to provide severance pay to its terminated employees.  Usually, as a condition of receiving severance pay, the employee has to release or give up any future legal claim he or she might have against the employer.   Read on to find out more about how severance pay works.