Q&A: An employee has more than one garnishment order, which one gets deducted first?

Except when an IRS tax lien was served prior to the date the child support order was entered, federal and state laws require child support withholding to take priority over all other garnishments If the employee has multiple child support garnishments, current support takes priority over past due support.

For child support garnishments, you must withhold the required amount as long as the amount does not exceed 50 percent of the employee's net disposable earnings.

Loans, credit collections and other debts are secondary to child support garnishments.

Regardless of the number of garnishments, a withholding order for loans, credit collections and other debts cannot exceed the lesser of:

25 percent of the employee's disposable income, or
50 percent the amount by which the disposable earnings for the week exceed 40 times the state minimum hourly wage in effect.

If you receive multiple garnishments that exceed the maximum amount you may withhold, contact the issuing authority.

See the California Department of Child Support Services for additional guidance.

Read about Garnishment Against Wages in the HR Library.

An employee has more than one garnishment order, which one gets deducted first?

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