Laid off from Colgate-Palmolive.

What Colgate-Palmolive layoffs have meant for employees

Colgate has announced its cuts as restructuring programs, each priced in an SEC filing, and each one its board approved since 2012 outgrew its first filing. The 2012 program outlasted the four years in its October 2012 filing after a March 2016 filing extended it, the 2022 initiative ran to the end of 2024 against the same-year finish in its January 2022 filing, according to the 2025 Form 10-K, and the 2025 program's cost estimate rose in its first year, the June 2026 quarterly report shows. Each estimate was a projection covering phases or initiatives still to be approved, and the board later widened the programs themselves. So a program's launch has been a poor measure of how far it would reach, and the revised estimates came in later filings.

At Colgate's US plants, the closings on record were built around making the products somewhere else. The plan in Colgate's June 2005 filing handed Kansas City's bar soap to an outside manufacturer, Clarksville's production went to new facilities, according to AP, and Morristown's manufacturing was moving to the Carolinas in 2016, NJBIZ reported, with affected employees able to apply for other positions in the company. If a transfer or an opening at another site comes with your notice, the drive, the shift and the pay are worth setting against any severance before you answer.

Colgate's programs have also aimed at office work. The 2004 plan called for moving business support functions out of country subsidiaries into regional and global shared-service centers, its December 2004 release said, and the 2016 filing set out to extend the shared service model to every region, starting with finance and accounting. The 2025 10-K lists shared business service centers in India, Mexico and Poland. In 2015 Hill's planned to move part of its Topeka IT work to Colgate-owned centers and told the staff affected they could seek other IT jobs in the company, AP's story on Kansas Public Radio said. At the time, a Hill's spokeswoman put the workforce at its Topeka and Emporia operations at more than 900 people.

In Colgate's recent filings, severance appears as part of its restructuring charges. The June 2026 report says the employee-related charges it books are calculated from long-standing benefit practices, written severance policies, local statutory requirements and, in some cases, voluntary termination arrangements, which is how the company prices its programs worldwide. At the Kansas City plant, the 2005 filing made employee-related costs subject to negotiation with the union, and the 10-K says some employees are represented by unions or works councils. If you're covered by a union contract, any severance or transfer terms in it are worth reading next to any written offer from Colgate.

Hill's Pet Nutrition had its own share in the estimates for the 2012 program and the 2025 program, and through June 2026 Hill's accounted for 20% of what the newer program had booked, against 10% for North America. With more than 84% of Colgate's employees outside the United States at the end of 2025, a global program's headline cost says little about any one US site. If your Hill's job was in Kansas, Kansas unemployment benefits sets out that state's rules for a claim, and if it was at a Hill's plant in Kentucky, Kentucky unemployment benefits does the same. If your Colgate job was in New Jersey, New Jersey unemployment benefits covers that state.

A sourced history of Colgate-Palmolive layoffs

• July 2025, Strategic Growth and Productivity Program

  Colgate's board approved a three-year program to realign its organization, optimize its supply chain and cut overhead, first estimated at $200 million to $300 million in charges, 65% to 75% of them employee-related, per the 2025 Form 10-K.

• January 2022, 2022 Global Productivity Initiative

  Colgate's board approved a targeted program to move resources toward faster-growing businesses and streamline the supply chain by the end of 2022, at $200 million to $240 million in charges, 80% employee-related, its January 2022 filing said.

• June 2016, Morristown, New Jersey plant closing

  Colgate filed a WARN notice to close its Morristown plant effective June 15, affecting up to 300 jobs, NJBIZ reported. Affected employees could apply for other company jobs; those laid off were to get severance and transition assistance.

• October 2015, Hill's IT cuts in Topeka

  Hill's planned to cut 44 IT jobs in Topeka, moving some work to Colgate centers in New Jersey, Mexico City and India, AP reported via Kansas Public Radio; staff could apply for other IT jobs, a spokeswoman said.

• October 2012, Global Growth and Efficiency Program

  Colgate's board approved a four-year program expected to shrink its 38,600-person workforce by about 6% by the end of 2016, with 15% of the charges expected at Hill's Pet Nutrition, per the October 2012 filing.

• October 2005, Clarksville, Indiana plant closing

  Colgate said it would close its Clarksville plant and move production to new plants in Tennessee and Mexico. An AP report on Manufacturing.net said the last lines were set to stop in December 2007, ending about 115 of some 200 remaining jobs.

• June 2005, Kansas City, Kansas soap plant closing

  Colgate planned to have an established US third party make its bar soap and close its Kansas City, Kansas plant in late 2006, expecting to offer severance and transition assistance in line with long-established practice, per its June 2005 filing.

• December 2004, four-year restructuring plan

  Colgate announced a plan to close about a third of its 78 factories worldwide and cut its 37,000-person workforce by about 12%, at an after-tax cost of $550 million to $650 million, its December 2004 release said.

What to do if you're laid off from Colgate-Palmolive

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Colgate-Palmolive's biggest hubs: Kansas, New Jersey, Kentucky. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Colgate-Palmolive's hub states run: Kansas, New Jersey, Kentucky, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.