When your wages are garnished, this mean money is taken out of your paycheck to pay of the debt that you may owe. An important fact to remember about wage garnisheeing is that in most cases it can not happen automatically. The creditor or collection agency that is looking to get their money can only garnishee your wages if it has gone to court and obtained a judgment against you.

After the judgment is obtained you will then have a certain periods of time either to pay the judgment or to set up a payment agreement. If you do not make payments as you agreed or do not make arrangements at all, then the lender can go to court to get a Writ of Garnishment that permits them to garnishee your wages.

There are limits on how much your wages can be garnished. In addition to your regular wages or income, the following earnings may be garnished: commissions, bonuses, vacation pay, and periodic payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program. Tips, income tax refunds, unemployment and welfare benefits are not subject to wage garnishment.

Only your disposable income can be garnished. Disposable income is income left over after legally required deductions are taken out. these deductions include: Federal income taxes, State and city income taxes, State unemployment taxes, Social Security contributions, State employee retirement deductions.

In addition only a portion of your disposable income may be garnished. The percentage is 25percent of your disposable income for the week or the amount by which your disposable income for the week exceeds 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage, which ever is less.

Additional wages may be garnished to enforce support agreements. In addition to the federal wage garnishment rules mentioned above, each state may have its own laws. State laws can only be more favorable to consumers than the federal law.

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