Garnishment
Garnishment is a legal order requiring an employer to withhold a portion of an employee's wages and send it directly to a creditor, court, or government agency to satisfy a debt such as child support, unpaid taxes, or a court judgment. The employer must begin withholding once a valid garnishment order arrives and continues until the order is satisfied or withdrawn.
How much an employer can withhold
Federal law caps most garnishments at 25% of an employee's disposable earnings, the amount left after legally required deductions, or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less. Child support and tax levies follow different, often higher, limits set by their own specific rules rather than the general garnishment cap, and several states cap garnishments below the federal maximum for at least some order types. When an employee has more than one garnishment order, they generally get satisfied in a set priority order, commonly child support first, rather than in the order the employer received them.
Employer obligations when a garnishment order arrives
An employer that receives a garnishment order must start withholding by the order's specified deadline, calculate the correct amount, remit it to the payee on the schedule the order specifies, and keep withholding until told to stop. Firing or disciplining an employee because of a single garnishment order is illegal under federal law, though that same protection typically does not extend to a second, unrelated garnishment. An employer that ignores a valid garnishment order, miscalculates the withholding, or fails to remit payments on time can be held personally liable for the amount that should have been withheld.
Calculating garnishment withholding correctly against disposable earnings, then remitting it to the right payee on schedule, is easy to get wrong when it's tracked outside the payroll run itself. WageTime handles garnishment order setup, calculation against disposable earnings, payee disbursement, and compliance tracking, with child-support payments remitted by ACH.
See how WageTime handles garnishmentsFrequently asked
Can an employee be fired for having wages garnished?
Not for a single garnishment order. Federal law prohibits termination based on one garnishment, though it does not protect an employee who has multiple, unrelated garnishment orders against them.
Do all garnishments follow the same withholding limit?
No. Ordinary creditor garnishments generally follow the federal 25% disposable-earnings cap, but child support and federal tax levies follow their own separate limits, which can allow a higher percentage to be withheld.