By federal law, in most cases only one creditor can lay claim to your wages at a single time. In essence, whichever creditor files for an order first gets to garnish your paycheck. In that case, another creditor’s order can be put into effect up to the amount allowed by law to be taken out of each of your paychecks.

How many times can a company garnish your wages?

Federal Wage Garnishment Limits for Judgment Creditors If a judgment creditor is garnishing your wages, federal law provides that it can take no more than: 25% of your disposable income, or. the amount that your income exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less.

What’s the limit for a weekly wage garnishment?

For ordinary garnishments (i.e., those not for support, bankruptcy, or any state or federal tax), the weekly amount may not exceed the lesser of two figures: 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 (currently $7.25 an hour).

Can a single employee be subject to a wage garnishment?

A single employee might be subject to more than one garnishment. Sometimes an employee will already be subject to the maximum amount of garnishments allowed under the law when employers receive a new notice. In that case, which one gets paid?

Can a wage garnishment be used to pay off debt?

An employer might receive a notice of termination for a wage garnishment. An employee’s debt could be paid off through the wage garnishment. If any of these milestones are reached, employers should stop withholding the garnishment from employee paychecks and resume their normal compensation immediately.

Can a employer retaliate against a wage garnishment?

As an employer, you are prohibited from retaliating against an employee who is subject to wage garnishments for one debt. Terminating an employee or punishing them in the workplace is illegal.