Wage Garnishment

A legal order requiring an employer to withhold part of someone's pay and send it to a creditor.

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What it means

Wage garnishment is enforcement of a debt directly against earnings: the employer is ordered to withhold a portion of the employee's pay and remit it to a creditor. For most ordinary consumer debts a creditor has to sue and obtain a judgment first, so a garnishment usually means a court case has already concluded - occasionally one the debtor did not realize had been filed.

Some debts do not follow that route. Child support, defaulted federal student loans and certain federal tax debts can be collected through administrative processes with different rules and different limits.

Federal law caps how much of a person's pay can be taken and protects the employee from being fired because of a single debt garnishment; states may protect more, and the more protective rule applies. Limits for support obligations are set separately and are higher.

The federal cap for an ordinary debt is the lesser of two amounts each workweek: 25 percent of disposable earnings, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage (15 U.S.C. § 1673(a)). It is a cap on the total taken, not a separate allowance for each creditor. Disposable earnings are what remains after deductions the law requires, such as tax withholding, not voluntary deductions (§ 1672(b)). For a support order the cap is 50 percent of disposable earnings for a person supporting another spouse or child, and 60 percent otherwise. Each rises by 5 percentage points when the support is overdue by more than the period the statute sets (§ 1673(b)(2)).

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

Two things are worth checking promptly: whether the underlying judgment was validly obtained and served, and whether the amount being withheld exceeds what the law permits once state protections are applied. Both have limited windows in which they can be challenged.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• Automatic Renewal and Negative Option SubscriptionsThe federal and state rules on subscriptions that keep charging until you cancel - what a seller must disclose and obtain before enrolling you, the cancellation mechanism it must offer, and where the law currently stands.
• Billing Error Dispute (Credit Card Chargeback)The federal procedure for disputing a charge on a credit card statement - a written process with deadlines on both sides that the card issuer must follow, not a courtesy it may offer.
• Class ActionOne lawsuit brought by named plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group with the same injury.
• Cooling-Off Rule (Canceling a Door-to-Door Sale)The federal right to cancel certain sales made at your home or away from the seller's regular place of business, the notice the seller must give you, and the many sales it does not reach.
• Credit Freeze and Fraud AlertTwo free federal tools for stopping identity thieves from opening accounts in your name - one that locks your credit file, one that warns lenders to check who they are dealing with.
• Credit Report DisputeThe federal process for forcing a credit bureau and the company that reported an item to investigate information you say is wrong.
• Data Breach Notification RightsWhat a business must tell you when your personal information is exposed, which laws require it, what the notice must say, and what a person whose data was breached can actually claim.
• Debt Validation Notice and Disputing a DebtThe written notice a debt collector must send when it first contacts you, what it must contain, and the dispute right it opens - during which the collector must stop until it verifies the debt.
• Fair Debt Collection (Collector Conduct Rules)Federal limits on what a third-party debt collector may say and do - including a written demand that stops contact, and a 30-day right to make them verify the debt.
• Gift Card and Prepaid Card RulesThe federal limits on gift card expiration and fees, the state laws that go further, and the separate protections for reloadable prepaid cards used like bank accounts.
• Identity Theft Recovery RightsThe federal rights a victim of identity theft can use to remove fraudulent accounts from a credit report, obtain the records of what the thief did, stop the debts being collected, and limit liability for the charges.
• Implied Warranty and the Magnuson-Moss ActThe promises the law reads into a sale whether or not anyone wrote them down, and the federal act that limits how a seller can take them away.
• Mandatory Arbitration ClauseA term in a consumer contract that sends any dispute to a private arbitrator instead of a court, usually alone rather than as part of a class - and federal law makes most of them enforceable.
• Right of Rescission (Home Loans)A federal right to cancel certain loans secured by your home during a short window after signing - and for much longer if the lender failed to give the required disclosures.
• Robocalls and the TCPAThe federal law that restricts automated and prerecorded calls and texts to your phone, gives you a Do Not Call right, and lets you sue for a fixed amount per illegal call.
• Time-Barred DebtA debt so old that the statute of limitations bars a lawsuit to collect it - what a collector may and may not do about it, how a payment can revive it, and why the credit-reporting clock is a different clock.
• Unauthorized Debit Card and Electronic Transfers (Regulation E)The federal rules that limit a consumer's loss from an unauthorized debit card, ATM, ACH or payment-app transfer, require the bank to investigate an error, and decide who bears a loss the consumer was tricked into sending themselves.
• Unfair and Deceptive Practices (UDAP)The consumer-protection laws, one federal and one in every state, that make it illegal for a business to mislead you or treat you unfairly - and the state versions are the ones a consumer can actually sue under.
• Vehicle RepossessionA lender's right to take back a financed car after default without going to court - subject to rules about how it is taken, how it is sold, and what you can still be made to pay afterwards.

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