Do your supervisors know what weekly disposable earnings means in the context of wage garnishment? Do they know the maximum amount that may be withheld for administrative orders? Below is some information to convey to your supervisors.

Both wage garnishment and family support orders require employers to withhold money from an employee's weekly disposable earnings.

• "Disposable earnings" is the amount left of an employee's weekly paycheck after legally required deductions have been made. These deductions include federal, state, and local taxes; Social Security and Medicare; unemployment insurance; and state employee retirement systems.
• Other deductions that are not required by law are not subtracted from gross weekly earnings when calculating the amount of disposable earnings for garnishment or family support purposes. Such deductions might include health and life insurance, 401(k) contributions, and union dues.

A federal government agency that is owed a debt by an employee can issue an administrative order to garnish the employee's wages.

• The most that may be withheld in this case is up to 15 percent of the employee's weekly disposable earnings.
• Alternatively, you can use the minimum wage formula. That's the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the minimum wage. If that produces a result that's less than 15 percent of weekly disposable earnings, you should use that formula.
• When you receive an administrative garnishment order, you must send in the required amount within 10 days of each payday.
• Different rules may apply when you have multiple orders for withholding child or family support payments or other garnishment payments for an employee. In such cases, the advice of an attorney is definitely recommended.

The above information comes from BLR's presentation "Wage Garnishment and Family Support Withholding: What Supervisors Need to Know." For more information on all the training courses BLR has to offer, go to our Employee and Manager Training page.