In most cases, a parent's salary is not garnished for the need of child support until they have fallen significantly behind on their payments and have not made complete payments in a number of months. The courts and an agency run by the state government that handles child support typically begin the process of wage garnishment and coordinate it with the parent's employer in question.

How to avoid having your salary garnished for child support
From 1968 onwards, when the government passed Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act into law, federal law has imposed constraints on all different kinds of garnishments. The law will allow employers of divorced parents to garnish up to fifty percent of the parent's earnings for delinquent child support payments. This percentage increases to sixty percent if the guardian in question is'nt supporting a partner, child or children not under the cover of the child support order that's being questioned. If the concerned parent is overdue for over 12 weeks in payments, there is an additional 5% increase in the amount due. The combined limit is between 50 and 65 percent. Because this would amount to 85 percent of the debt, a creditor cannot collect 25 percent of the debt while also having child support garnish about 60 percent of the debt. Garnishments for child support have precedence over all other garnishments, except for tax levies issued by the IRS. Even in this case, the need to pay child support takes precedence over any other liens or levies unless the lien or levy was lodged prior to the date on which the child support order was made.

When a company receives information that it needs to garnish an employee's salary, the process can then officially commence. To explain the wage garnishment, the employer needs to write to the worker and either send it along with the subsequent payment or send it ahead of time.

In addition to regular salaries, child support arrears might have a garnishment order against other income kinds. The Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement states that a garnishment can also be placed on other types of income. Virtually every possible source of income is susceptible to risk.