Settlement agreement compensation calculator

Use our award-winning calculator to estimate the value of your potential settlement agreement (aka compromise agreement) in the UK.

See also our main guide on settlement agreements for an outline of what a settlement agreement is and how you can go about getting one when you want to leave your employment because you’ve been badly treated.

What facts & assumptions does our calculator use?

In our settlement agreement calculator (aka compromise agreement calculator) we assume that you have been employed for over 2 years, that you have either been dismissed or forced to resign, and that you have the evidence to prove that the dismissal (or constructive dismissal if you resigned) was legally unfair.

What case details affect the calculator results?

Our calculator uses the information you provide about your individual employment circumstances and about your dispute/legal case to calculate your estimated settlement agreement payment, including the following:

Is your salary important in calculating your settlement amount?

Salary is very important. That’s because, in constructive dismissal and unfair dismissal cases in the UK, an employment tribunal would only tend to award a successful claimant with a sum of money equivalent to that which they lost whilst in between jobs.

When calculating your settlement agreement ex gratia payment amount, we start with a baseline level of 2 months’ gross pay. Admittedly this is slightly finger in the air, but it does seem to be an average starting point in reality in our experience, to be adjusted up or down for other factors as set out below.

Does your notice period matter in calculating your exit payment?

We’re adding your notice period into our settlement agreement calculation, on the basis that we would often be able to get you a deal whereby you receive payment in lieu of notice, ie you still get paid for your notice period but you don’t have to work it. Ideal!

Does your age affect the settlement amount?

It’s harder to find a job if you’re nearing retirement age, therefore you would get more compensation if successful at an employment tribunal. However, your award might well be less if you are older than retirement age,  because your retirement was going to take place anyway. So depending on your age we adjust the amount calculated accordingly.

Why does the size of your organisation matter to the calculator?

Bigger companies tend to want to settle cases more, but they have more red tape and approvals to get. Small companies sometimes can’t afford to settle a case. The middle ground here is the sweet spot for your settlement agreement calculation.

Would you get a higher payment the longer you’d been employed?

Our calculator gives you a slight increase for the number of years worked, simply because you’ve probably forged more loyalty from your employer, and your level of knowledge about the company might be greater too, so things like handovers are more valuable.

Also, you might know things about the company and its practices that senior management would prefer to be kept confidential! So the longer your service, the greater your settlement offer and settlement agreement calculator result.

How does the calculator deal with redundancy?

We’ve drawn a distinction here between redundancy situations where it’s just you going and where others are going too.

If it’s just you, your employers are likely to have put together a ‘business case’ for getting rid of you, even if it’s actually fabricated, and that makes calculating a settlement agreement payment more challenging. However, the calculator does factor in the possibility that the redundancy dismissal, or the redundancy process, could be proven to be unfair and that you might have an unfair dismissal claim.

If others are going too, then the calculator will be unlikely to calculate a payment for you.  For example, if your whole department were being outsourced abroad it would be virtually impossible to prove that your individual redundancy was unfair.

Would it affect the calculations if I’d submitted a grievance?

A slight increase here in your settlement agreement calculator amount, because submitting a grievance shows that you are serious and have something to argue about but at the same time it’s not a hugely difficult obstacle for your employer to overcome.

How does the calculator take discrimination into account?

The calculator only calculates a slight increase to your settlement/compromise agreement calculator amount in this circumstance because discrimination is very difficult to prove in practice.

If you’ve already left your employment or have a new job, how does the calculator factor that in?

If you’ve previously left your job, then this is a real setback to the likelihood of you getting a good settlement offer. Your employers have no incentive now to pay you to leave. If you’ve got a new job lined up, then this makes the chance of a settlement even less likely, because you can’t even claim that you have been/will be adversely affected by loss of earnings.

If you’ve issued a tribunal claim, how would that affect the chances of a decent settlement payment?

If you’ve issued a tribunal claim then it does make you look more serious. However, your action may have ‘wrongfooted’ your employers and any remaining goodwill from them may well have evaporated.  On balance in these circumstances, the calculator only gives a small increase in your estimated settlement agreement payment.

How would being disabled affect a settlement payout?

A modest increase here in the calculator amount if you’re disabled because normally you are able to do your job properly. Having said that, it is easier for them to make your working life harder, and it can be harder to get another job too.

Does a whistleblowing case affect the calculation?

If you’ve been involved in whistleblowing, companies (especially big ones) feel obliged to fully investigate and of course to defend any allegations of unlawful conduct. So any settlement payout is going to be hard to win.

Employers are not keen to pay you off in order to hush it up – the so-called gagging clause – because what if word gets out and you go to the press anyway? Then they’ve made it look worse for themselves by paying you to sign a settlement agreement and to keep quiet about it.

We’ve given a slight increase for whistleblowing anyway because with the right employment lawyers you can subtly hint at these things, or keep them verbal, and use that to leverage a good settlement agreement deal.

What’s the impact of an existing performance improvement plan on any settlement payout?

Our calculator factors in a fair increase for a settlement agreement payment if you’ve been put on a performance improvement plan (PIP) but would prefer to leave your employment.

Your employers are in any event going to be paying your salary for the period of your plan.  They are also going to be investing considerable management time in managing your PIP.  So they may well be amenable to putting the latter costs into a settlement payment to you.

That way, they can be reasonably confident that you will leave your employment without them also incurring legal fees in fighting a potential dispute with you.

It’s something that you yourself could suggest and also offer to leave quietly in exchange for a decent settlement package.

Are you likely to get less if you’re on a disciplinary?

The calculator will make a significant decrease if you’re facing disciplinary action, as no doubt your employer would try to use this to against you in any approach you might make for a settlement deal (regardless of whether the disciplinary is justified or not).

How does the calculator handle a settlement payment if you’re on sick leave?

Short-term sick leave can help your case as it may be that your employers’ behaviour is making you ill and frankly also you may well still be getting paid to be off sick. These circumstances would increase the amount calculated for your settlement agreement.

Long-term sick leave however would have a detrimental effect.  It makes your case harder to fight because firstly, you’re probably not being paid anyway (so why should they start paying you now) and secondly, they could argue that you are not capable of working.

Does the calculator add commission or bonus due?

We’ve taken into account some of your bonus, but not a huge amount because often these things are discretionary and difficult to argue that you were contractually entitled to it.

Commission is a different matter though – we’ve allocated a bigger chunk of your commission because it’s normally contractual. As your employer will probably dispute the figure, we haven’t given you 100% of this in your calculated settlement agreement amount.

Does the calculator distinguish between public & private sector employees?

Many public sector organisations won’t negotiate with employees for settlement agreements. If that’s the case, then you have to take any claim against them to an employment tribunal and the calculator won’t allocate an amount for a settlement agreement.