Can My Wages be Garnished?

There seems to be much confusion among consumers in Pennsylvania with regard to the right of creditors or debt collectors to cause wages to be garnished for the payment of past due obligations. This may be due to the fact that Pennsylvania is one out of only a handful of states that have thus far thwarted the strong creditor lobby in favor of wage garnishment laws. There are two fundamental facts you must understand about wage garnishment:

1. No jurisdiction within the United States permits the garnishment of wages without legal process, i.e., you must first be sued by the respective creditor, debt collector or debt buyer before anyone can even raise the specter of wage garnishment;
2. Pennsylvania does not permit wage garnishment (with a few extremely limited exceptions, namely child support and past due rent)

For more information about wage garnishment, please see our recent post on our Abusive Debt Collection blog.