Pep Boys has told Pennsylvania it will lay off 169 workers at its Bala Cynwyd headquarters, with separations scheduled across a window that runs from December 31, 2026 to February 19, 2027. The entry appears on the Department of Labor and Industry’s WARN notice list as a layoff by Pep Boys Manny Moe & Jack, LLC. A window of about seven weeks, rather than a single day, raises a practical question for the people on the list: which date in that span is theirs.
The notice carries money consequences that run past the headline count, because the dates drive when the final paycheck arrives and when employer benefits end.
One Montgomery County address, 50 days apart
The Pennsylvania WARN notice list gives the site as 1 Presidential Boulevard, Suite 400, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004, in Montgomery County. It records 169 workers affected, a notice month of September 2026, a layoff date field reading 12/31/26-2/19/27, and the notice type as a layoff. The municipality is confirmed by the state listing itself: Bala Cynwyd, the company’s headquarters address.
Counting from December 31 to February 19 gives 50 days. The entry does not say whether that is a staggered schedule, with different employees leaving on different dates, or one planned wind-down with a final date at the end. The page’s separation-structure field is blank, and the list offers no breakdown of how many of the 169 fall on each date. The state’s figure is a single notice count, not a sum across notices, and it covers headquarters jobs at that one site, not store closures or a company-wide total.
How the other entries on the same list differ
The structure of the Pep Boys entry stands out against neighbors on the same page. Grede LLC is listed with 170 workers in Meadville and a single layoff date of 10/10/26, and Eos Energy with 251 workers in East Pittsburgh and a single date of 10/26/26. Those entries give workers one date. Pep Boys gives a range, and a range leaves each worker dependent on the employer’s own scheduling for the exact last day of work. The list reproduces the Pep Boys dates as written, 12/31/26-2/19/27, with a hyphen between them and no annotation about whether the end date is a final separation or a scheduled review of who remains. Reading the range as a schedule of staggered exits is a reasonable inference, but the state page does not state it.
What the 60-day rule guarantees and what it leaves out
The Labor Department’s worker guide to WARN states that covered employees must receive written notice 60 days before a mass layoff or plant closing. If an employer does not give it, the guide says, workers may be able to seek damages for back pay and benefits for up to 60 days, depending on how many days of notice they received. The guide also lets an employer give pay and benefits in place of notice, and it does not describe any severance entitlement. WARN is a notice rule. It promises advance warning, not a payout.
The same guide addresses the scheduling question in its own terms. It says an employer may give notice that employees will be separated within a two-week, or 14-day, period after a certain date. The Pennsylvania entry shows a span of 50 days, so the list alone does not show how Pep Boys structured the notices it gave individual employees. The exact notice date is not on the list.
Final pay, benefits and the dates that decide them
Two dates matter most for a worker’s household budget: the last day of employment and the day employer benefits stop. Neither appears on the state list, which records only the window. Because the notice month is September, any notice given that month arrived at least 92 days before the first date of December 31, comfortably more than the 60 days the guide describes. The WARN guide ties its damages remedy to missing or short notice, so a worker told a specific date well inside the window has notice that the list itself cannot confirm or dispute. The list is a state compilation of notices received, not a copy of what each employee was told.
The federal regulation on exceptions, 20 CFR Part 639, allows reduced notice in three narrow cases: a faltering company, unforeseeable business circumstances, and natural disaster. Nothing on the Pennsylvania list indicates that Pep Boys relied on any of them, and a September notice month against a December 31 first date is consistent with the standard 60-day period.
Anything beyond the notice, whether a final-paycheck date, accrued-vacation treatment, health-coverage end date or severance, would come from the company’s own paperwork to each employee. The state list is silent on all of it, and no Pep Boys statement was found in the sources read.
The record as of October 4, 2026 is a notice listing 169 workers at Bala Cynwyd with a separation window of December 31, 2026 through February 19, 2027, both dates still ahead.
Protected benefit funds and creditor garnishment
The kit is written for people whose income is federal benefits paid into a bank account, and for anyone who has had an account frozen or garnished by a creditor. It is also for those fielding contacts from debt collectors who are unsure what must be proven first.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit is a 10-page kit with the frozen-account response and the 2-month bank protection rule, plus a protected-funds and dispute log for keeping records.
Get the frozen-account response and dispute log →
This article was prepared with the help of an AI writing tool, using the public notice list and federal guidance cited above, and its figures were compared with those sources before publication.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
