A notice of job termination. The term, used mainly in the United States, originated in the early 1900s but there is no evidence that such a notice was written on pink paper. A holdover from when workers were paid in cash, the termination slip was included in the envelope with their wages, often unexpectedly. The New York Times ran an article by Frank J. Prial on June 18, 1991, stating, “Six thousand New York City municipal employees are getting ‘pink slips’ this week. In other words, they are being laid off.” But, Prial went on to say, their termination was announced not by pink slip but by telex.