Garnishments

Garnishments are a court ordered deduction that the University of Illinois System must honor, for monies owed to a company or an individual. Therefore, Payroll Services needs to receive another court order to terminate or change them. The deduction will begin as soon as we receive the garnishment. The amount of the deduction is the lesser of:

• 15% of Gross minus retirement or

• Gross minus retirement, federal & state taxes, FICA and medicare minus (45 times the minimum wage).

Payroll Services cannot take a deduction if you make less than minimum wage (45 times hourly min wage per week). The deduction will continue until it is paid in full (including interest) and we receive a release from the attorney that issued the garnishment.

We will answer the garnishment on or before the return date listed on the court order. This lets the court and the garnishment attorney know the employees pay status and what their deductions calculate to be. The attorney will then send us a court order for the amount they want us to deduct every pay period. A garnishment order is usually for a percentage (usually 15%) rather than a flat amount, therefore the deduction could fluctuate with your pay.

If the employees files Bankruptcy or is in the process of filing, have the Bankruptcy attorney fax an Automatic Stay to the payroll office at 312-996-6542. This will terminate the garnishment deductions, and any money deducted after the date Bankruptcy was filed will be refunded back to the employee. Any money withheld before the filing will be held until a Stipulation to Dismiss is received from the Garnishments attorney.

Last Updated: July 23, 2018