Garnishments

Wages include salaries, commissions, bonuses and income from a pension or retirement program, but ordinarily not including tips.

Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act protects employees from discharge by their employers because their wages have been garnished by any one debt, regardless of the number of levies made or proceedings brought to collect it. Title III does not protect an employee from discharge if the employee’s earning has been subject to garnishment for a second or subsequent debt.

The maximum amount that can be seized in a wage garnishment is 25% of the disposable income.

With multiple wage garnishments in place, this limits the deductions to one wage garnishment at a time. The first wage garnishment must be satisfied before wages can be seized on the next wage garnishment in line.

Yes. At anytime during the wage garnishment, the defendant can call the Ward 3 Marshal’s Office and ask for a final payment to pay off the garnishment and stop wages from being seized. The calculation will require communication with the creditor, so the quote is not always immediately available.

Wage garnishment stays in place until court awarded judgment has been satisfied or either of the following:

• A Bankruptcy Order will interrupt collection.
• The debtor leaves employment with the company described in the order for more than 180 days.

25% of the employee’s disposable earnings or the amount by which an employee’s disposable earnings are greater than 30 times the federal minimum wage.