New research ranks Sri Lanka as the world's costliest country for dismissals at 58.5 weeks' salary
Sri Lanka has been identified as the most expensive country in the world for employee dismissals, with employers required by law to pay the equivalent of 58.5 weeks of salary, or roughly 13.5 months of pay, to make a single worker redundant.
The finding comes from the Termination Cost Index 2026, a new study by Employ Borderless, an independent advisory platform for international hiring headquartered in Singapore.
The index analysed statutory notice and severance obligations across 190 countries and territories, making it the first comprehensive cross-border benchmarking study of its kind.
Robbin Schuchmann, co-founder of Employ Borderless, said the research was intended to close a blind spot in global hiring decisions.
"When companies expand globally or hire remotely, nearly all their financial modelling goes into competitive local salaries and employer taxes. The exit is where the law actually bites," Schuchmann said.
Exit costs across the world
Sri Lanka's 58.5-week statutory exit cost is made up of 4.3 weeks of notice and 54.2 weeks of severance pay, the highest severance obligation of any country in the index.
Zambia ranks second at 50.5 weeks, followed by Egypt at 39.7 weeks. Bolivia (36.0 weeks), Zimbabwe (34.6 weeks), and Indonesia (33.2 weeks) also feature among the ten most expensive jurisdictions for dismissals globally.
At the other end of the spectrum, only the United States and New Zealand have no statutory minimum notice period or mandatory severance pay for individual redundancies.
The US, which operates under an at-will employment default, ranks 111th out of 190 scored countries. That makes it a statistical outlier: the median scored country owes more than 15 weeks of salary to exit a single employee, meaning the at-will default is the exception rather than the rule.
Median statutory termination cost
Meanwhile, the global median statutory termination cost stands at 15.3 weeks of salary, or roughly 3.5 months of pay, before any contractual negotiation begins.
Asia recorded the highest regional average, with 47 scored countries averaging 19.7 weeks of salary. Oceania posted the lowest regional average at 10.8 weeks across nine scored countries. The Americas ranked second globally at 18.0 weeks, followed by Africa at 17.9 weeks and Europe at 13.1 weeks.
The index also found that statutory severance pay accounts for the larger share of dismissal costs in 126 of the 190 countries analysed, meaning the financial burden typically arrives as a lump sum on exit rather than as an extended notice period.
However, seven countries require employers to keep departing workers on the payroll for three months or longer under statutory notice obligations alone. Belgium, for instance, carries its entire statutory exit cost in notice, 19.7 weeks, with no mandatory severance component at all.
"Our goal with the Termination Cost Index is to give founders, HR leaders, and CFOs complete transparency before making cross-border hiring decisions. Entering a market without understanding statutory termination obligations can turn a routine restructuring or performance management process into a severe financial liability," Schuchmann said.
