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The state of Kentucky has a number of statutes on the subject of garnishment of wages.
Contacts
None.
Regulations
KRS §405.465 Income withholding or wage assignments for child support, medical support, maintenance, and medical support insurance orders.
This section shall apply only to those child support, medical support, maintenance, and medical support insurance orders that are established, modified, or enforced by the Cabinet for Families and Children or those court orders obtained in administering Part D, Title IV of the Federal Social Security Act.
All child support orders and medical support insurance orders being established, modified, or enforced by the Cabinet for Families and Children, or those orders obtained pursuant to the administration of Part D, Title IV of the Federal Social Security Act, shall provide for income withholding which shall begin immediately.
The court shall order either or both parents who are obligated to pay child support, medical support, or maintenance under this section to assign to the Cabinet for Families and Children that portion of salary or wages of the parent due and to be due in the future as will be sufficient to pay the child support amount ordered by the court.
The order shall be binding upon the employer or any subsequent employer upon the service by certified mail of a copy of the order upon the employer and until further order of the court. The employer may deduct the sum of one dollar ($1) for each payment made pursuant to the order.
The employer shall notify the cabinet when an employee, for whom a wage withholding is in effect, terminates employment and provide the terminated employee’s last known address and the name and address of the terminated employee’s new employer if known.
An assignment made pursuant to court order shall have priority as against any attachment, execution, or other assignment, unless otherwise ordered by the court.
No assignment under this section by an employee shall constitute grounds for dismissal of the obligator, refusal to employ, or taking disciplinary action against any obligator subject to withholding required by this section.
www.lrc.ky.gov/Statutes/statute.aspx?id=40965
KRS §405.991 Penalties.
Any person or corporation violating the provisions of KRS 405.465 or 405.467 shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than one (1) year, or both.
www.lrc.ky.gov/Statutes/statute.aspx?id=17607
KRS §427.140 Employee may not be discharged for garnishment for one (1) indebtedness.
No employer may discharge any employee by reason of the fact that his earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one (1) indebtedness.
www.lrc.ky.gov/Statutes/statute.aspx?id=18556
KRS §427.010 Exempt personal property and disposable earnings of individual debtors.
Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section and KRS 427.050, the maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment may not exceed the lesser of either:
Twenty-five percent (25%) of his disposable earnings for that week, or
The amount by which his disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty (30) times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by Section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in effect at the time the earnings are payable. In the case of earnings for any pay period other than a week, the multiple of the federal minimum hourly wage equivalent to that set forth in paragraph (b) of this subsection as prescribed by regulation by the federal secretary of labor shall apply.
The restrictions of subsection (2) of this section do not apply in the case of:
Any order of any court for the support of any person.
Any order of any court of bankruptcy under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Any debt due for any state or federal tax.
Contact
www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/garnishments
Regulations
Federal law limits the amount of wages that can be garnished, in most cases, to 25 percent of weekly earnings after taxes. If more that one garnishment order exists against an individual, the total amount cannot exceed the maximum set by law. Some government obligations, such as back taxes and child support, always have precedence.