Here's what your employer can (and can't) do when your wages are garnished

A garnishment order impacts your pay, but it doesn't hand your employer discretion over your paycheck. Getty Images/iStockphoto There's a common assumption that wage garnishment is a standoff between you and the creditor you owe money to. What many borrowers don't realize, though, is that the moment a garnishment order takes effect, a third party gets pulled into the middle of it: your employer. When you're facing a garnishment, the company that signs your paycheck becomes the entity that's responsible for diverting a slice of it , meaning that your debt is no longer just your business. That tends to raise questions, particularly around how much control an employer suddenly has over your income and your standing at work. This type of situation is one that more people are finding themselves in right now. Not only is household debt at record highs , but delinquencies on credit cards and personal loans have been climbing as more borrowers fall behind. In turn, more creditors are focused on securing court judgments against seriously delinquent borrowers, the legal step that makes garnishment possible. And as those judgments pile up, so do the withholding orders flowing into payroll departments, and with them comes the uncertainty about what employers are and aren't allowed to do once the money starts coming out. That uncertainty is understandable, given how much is at stake when your debt problems start to overlap with your job. …