Wage Garnishment FAQ

Video Transcript

"I'm Joe Dunlop. I'm a consultant and an adjunct professor with Stevens-Henegars College, in the business section. Today, we want to talk about wage garnishment. Wage garnishment occurs when an employee has a debt that has not been paid. That debt, depending on which state you're in, may be a private debt, it may be a federal debt, or it could be a state debt. All of these debts will be collected through the employee's wages. That is how a garnishment acts. It is usually done with a court order. An employee who has their wages garnished, are not allowed to be fired, and there are certain limitations to the amount of salary that can be taken from their wages, depending on how much they're earning. Now typically, only the employee who has a debt problem, or may be back on their child support, or behind on their taxes, will have their wages garnished. In some states, they are limited only to state and federal actions. In other states, they will be limited also to the private actions on debt collection. Wage garnishment is not necessarily a sign of illegal activity, as much as someone who does not understand how to control their finances, and how to get payments done on time."