This is how Canva’s severance package stacks up against industry standards

The graphic design platform Canva recently announced a restructuring that will impact 1,271 people, or 22% of the workforce.

In a note to employees, Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins said the decision represented “without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history.” She alluded to “new technology” that’s “transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use.”

Canva missed its earnings guidance in Q2 2026, when Perkins wrote in a letter to shareholders that the company was “relying too heavily on frontier models,” i.e. routing traffic through third-party AI models, rather than launching their own AI products, according to the SaaS CFO, an industry newsletter.

Despite the hard news, some HR leaders praised Canva leadership for offering a severance package that’s generous by industry standards. The company is offering not only six months’ salary and career support to affected workers, but also more niche perks, like letting them keep their company laptops.

Here’s how the package stacks up against other tech companies.

Continuation of salary, healthcare coverage. In her note, Perkins said all affected Canva employees would receive at least six months’ salary, regardless of where they’re based. Laid-off workers can also receive an additional year of healthcare coverage in countries where Canva currently provides this benefit.

Six months is relatively generous compared to other severance packages recently announced by tech firms conducting layoffs and buyouts. Meta employees who were laid off in the spring, for example, received four months of severance, plus an extra two weeks for each additional year they were employed with the company, according to Business Insider. Oracle, which started a new round of layoffs in September, provided four weeks of severance to affected workers, plus an additional week for each year of service, Business Insider reported.

As of 2024, US employers offered 19 weeks of severance, on average, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Trends varied by seniority and industry however, with executives receiving more severance than their junior peers. The chemicals industry offered the most generous average severance, at 35 weeks, while tech and communications lagged, at 11 weeks on average.

Continuation of healthcare benefits is one of the most common perks offered alongside compensation with a severance package, according to 2025 data from Randstad, as 39% of employers globally reported offering this.

Career support and other perks. Canva also said it will provide a variety of resources to help laid-off employees land their next job, including “one-on-one coaching, interview preparation, and one year of LinkedIn Premium.” Members of Canva’s talent acquisition team will dedicate time to reviewing employees’ résumés and practicing interviews with them, the company said.

The share of employers offering outplacement services has grown in recent years, according to a recent survey of US company leaders published by talent services firm LHH. A majority (85%) of organizations surveyed provided outplacement services to exempt employees as of 2025, LHH said, referring to a classification of workers who aren’t eligible for overtime pay. That’s up from 61% in 2024.

While Canva’s severance package is generous, Melissa Capicchiano, a regional manager with HR platform Deel, wrote on LinkedIn that she didn’t expect it to become an industry standard. Given the kind of headwinds the business is facing, six months’ salary is “a number that simply doesn’t fit on a stressed balance sheet,” she wrote.

“So admire it for what it is. A hard choice made well. Just don’t expect the next company to follow.”