How to Garnish Wages
- 1). Read about federal wage garnishment exemptions. Under federal law, 75 percent of a debtor's disposable weekly earnings are exempt from wage garnishment, or a weekly amount that is 30 times the minimum wage--whichever figure is greater. When garnishing a debtor's paycheck, the maximum amount that can be garnished is 25 percent of the debtor's weekly disposable earnings. If the debtor's weekly earnings are less than 30 times the minimum wage, you are precluded from garnishing wages.
- 2). Know each state's laws. While the state your business operates in might permit wage garnishment, if your debtor resides in a state that does not permit creditors to garnish wages, seeking such an order will be futile. Certain states are known as "debtors' states" because they afford strong protection for their residents' property and income. For example, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina do not permit creditors to garnish wages.
- 3). Get a judgment in your favor. Before you garnish an individual's wages, you must first file a civil suit against the debtor, prove that the debt is legitimate and what the debtor owes, and receive a court judgment in your favor. You cannot simply contact a debtor's employer and order the debtor's wages to be garnished; you must have a court order delivered to the employer first.
- 4). Play by the book. States have different procedures for wage garnishment. For example, New York requires debtors to be given notice of an impending wage garnishment before their employer is informed so that the debtor will have time to rectify the debt. This "grace period" is 20 days. Garnishments can be continuous (applied to the debtor's earnings until the debt is paid) or noncontinuous, in which case they only endure for a certain number of days, weeks or months. After that another garnishment order must be sought. Finally, wages are subject to only one creditor's garnishment at a time. If a debtor's earnings are currently garnished by another creditor, you will have to wait until that debt is fulfilled before serving the person' employer with your own garnishment order.