What Are The Restrictions On Wage Garnishment?

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The amount of pay subject to garnishment is based on an employee's
disposable earnings which is the amount left after legally required
deductions have been made for federal, state, and local taxes, Social
Security, unemployment insurance, and State employee retirement
systems.

Other deductions, such as those for union dues, health and life
insurance, contributions to charitable causes, voluntary wage
assignments, purchases of savings bonds, and payments to employers for payroll advances or purchases of merchandise, are not required by law and may not be subtracted from gross earnings when calculating the amount of disposable earnings.

The law sets the maximum amount that may be garnished in any
workweek or pay period, regardless of the number of garnishment
orders received by the employer. The amount may not exceed the
lesser of two figures: 25 percent of the employee's disposable earnings, or the amount that an employee's disposable earnings for the workweek are greater than 30 times the federal minimum wage. When pay periods cover more than one week, multiples of the weekly restrictions must be used to calculate the maximum amounts that may be garnished.



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