Severance is a promise. We're building the structure underneath it.
CushionPay is a portable layoff safety net that employees build with their own post-tax payroll deductions — so the money is already there, in their name, before anyone has to negotiate for it.
A benefit the employee owns and the employer offers.
Employees opt in and set a post-tax deduction from each paycheck. Those funds are held in FDIC-insured accounts through banking partners, in the employee's name — never on CushionPay's balance sheet, and never on their employer's. When an involuntary termination is verified, the balance is released the same day.
The employer's side is a flat platform fee. There is no employer contribution to employee funds, no premium, and no new balance-sheet liability — which is what makes it something a company can offer without underwriting an open-ended obligation.
Both sides carry the risk, and neither can plan for it.
An employee facing an involuntary exit has no dedicated reserve for it, and the employer has no predictable number to budget against — severance gets decided under time pressure, one case at a time, with legal exposure attached to every inconsistency. No standard benefit sits in that gap.
Fund it in advance, in the employee's own name.
A small post-tax deduction each pay cycle builds a cushion the employee owns and takes with them between jobs. The employer offers the benefit and pays a flat per-seat fee; the reserve itself is already funded and already assigned when the day comes.
Four conditions that weren't all true at once before.
Layoff protection has been an obvious idea for a long time. What changed is that every piece it depends on is now in place at the same time.
Workforce volatility
Involuntary separations arrive faster and with less warning than the benefits stack around them was designed for.
Severance under pressure
Severance is discretionary, negotiated case by case, and the first line reviewed when budgets tighten — which is exactly when employees need it.
Financial wellness expectations
Employees increasingly judge an offer on what protects them, not only on what pays them. Most financial wellness benefits stop short of job loss.
The plumbing finally exists
Payroll data, ACH rails and instant verification make a per-cycle contribution and a same-day release practical to run at scale.
A safety net that belongs to the person, not the payroll — one that follows them from job to job and is already funded on the day it's needed.
Portability is the point. A benefit that evaporates the moment employment ends isn't protection against losing employment. Ours is designed the other way round.
Questions, partnerships, or a pilot?
Model the cost for your own headcount, or write to us directly — we answer every enquiry.
sales@cushionpay.info