pink slip

1. Slang term for the discharge notice that an employee receives when being terminated by his or her employer, either as the result of a firing or layoff. It is often used in the idiomatic expression, “to get a pink slip.”  The term refers to the once-common practice in the United States of placing a pink slip in with an employee’s final payment check to notify him or her of their termination.
   
2. Slang term for an automobile’s certificate of title —the legal document proving that a person or business is the owner of a vehicle.  The term refers to the color of the certificate of title that used to be common in some states, such as California. The term “racing for pinks,” which means to compete in an illegal street race for the loser’s certificate of title, also refers to the color of this certificate of title.

[Last reviewed in August of 2020 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

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