Lien on my salary?

August 15, 2023 9:02 AM

My direct deposit was 50% less then normal. HR told me it was likely a clerical error. Today I looked at my paystub and I have a lien on my paycheck. I have received no letters or communication about this. Obviously I’m freaking out, how do I find out who has the lien and how long will it last?

I have no kids, no debts, no mortgage and no one I know I owe money to. Obviously this is not by accident, someone must have gotten a court order. I’m mainly concerned about getting the lien removed until I can figure this out. 50% is obviously a huge chunk of my pay. How can I figure it’ll out how long it will last at least? Even if I get a lawyer I assume this will take time to get resolved and I have bills to pay.

posted by geoff. to Work & Money (24 answers total)

Is it possible you owe taxes?
posted by slkinsey at 9:07 AM on August 15, 2023

Your HR is an idiot. Source: I am an HR.

You need to go back to them, find out who specifically is in charge of transacting payroll, and have them dig up the paperwork where this lien came from. It definitely exists. It may have been sent directly to the payroll processing company, but even if it was then your HR/payroll person will still be able to access it and get you information.
posted by phunniemee at 9:08 AM on August 15, 2023 [54 favorites]

Also there's a non-zero chance it's still a clerical error, even if it says it's a lien. Definitely contact your payroll person/department - fixing this or communicating with you about it is 100% their job. Don't assume anything.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:21 AM on August 15, 2023 [12 favorites]

Response by poster: Wouldn’t they warn me assuming they were normal? Also would the paperwork indicate how long the lien will last? 50% is huge.
posted by geoff. at 9:21 AM on August 15, 2023

have them dig up the paperwork where this lien came from. It definitely exists.

Unless by "clerical error" they meant that the lien was mistakenly applied to the wrong employee. But in that case, your HR is still an idiot, and you still need to talk with them.
posted by yuwtze at 9:21 AM on August 15, 2023 [17 favorites]

Wouldn’t they warn me assuming they were normal?

Yes they absolutely should. Which is how come I've said they're idiots. Garnishments don't come out of pay (at my company) without me having to touch the paperwork first. They have on occasion stopped without my interference (e.g. an employee's child turns 18 and the state notifies our payroll company to turn off the support order without telling me first) but I can't recall a single time a garnishment started without me being the intermediary.

The paperwork should explicitly list the case number for the garnishment order, contact information for both you and the employer to get more information, and explicit payroll instructions for how the garnishment should be applied.

The paperwork exists. Somewhere. Your employer needs to provide it to you.
posted by phunniemee at 9:26 AM on August 15, 2023 [39 favorites]

Also would the paperwork indicate how long the lien will last? 50% is huge.

The lien is a distraction here. Your paystub is different than you expected, someone at HR or Payroll made it that way. They should be able to readily explain why. Involve your manager as well if you aren't quickly getting answers about why you aren't getting paid. It might be a valid reason but if it's out of the blue it probably isn't, which means it's on them to fix it (if they entered the lien on the wrong person's account) or explain why they can't (I don't know, a valid court order showed up that incorrectly lists you instead of the other geoff down the road)
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:30 AM on August 15, 2023 [28 favorites]

Yeah, you definitely should have received some notification paperwork. I think you have to be served with a notice of garnishment and also a notice of intent to file a lien, among other things. This definitely shouldn't happen without your knowledge.

Also, the extent of the garnishment suggests that this is likely a mistake or possibly even fraud. In your state, the maximum amount your wages can be garnished is 25% of disposable income (i.e., gross pay minus mandatory deductions but not minus deductions for things such as medical insurance or retirement savings). The exception is for child support, which can go up to 50% of disposable income. So if you're being garnished to the tune of 50%, that suggests you're being garnished for child support.
posted by slkinsey at 9:32 AM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Well child support would be incredibly surprising and notching up my anxiety to 11
posted by geoff. at 9:42 AM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

If you have no kids, I don't see how it could be child support. That makes no sense. Just breathe and call HR.
posted by TurkishGolds at 9:54 AM on August 15, 2023 [11 favorites]

as someone who's had wage garnishments (but not for child support), I was (a) notified well in advance that it was happening (and with which payroll period it would start) via the payroll department; (b) that there was a hard limit on the amount they could take, which was below 50%, and for how long, which I don't remember; and (c) the amount due (so I could calculate how long it would take if it was less than the max). I could also look up the court order through the county court system and at least see that one was there, so you might look there too; most of the paperwork payroll sent over was actually just documentation from the court. This is to say nothing about all the stuff that was delivered prior to it being put in place, including process servers, court summons, other mailings, etc. - it was definitely not just a "whoops gonna do this now" sort of thing. So, echoing everyone else in that your HR dept has probably screwed something up, and they need to tell you what's going on. Caveat: I am not in your state.
posted by mrg at 9:57 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Please pursue this as if some dodo in HR mistyped or mis-clicked your name instead of the person who is supposed to encounter this garnishment. You are likely paying someone else's child support and you should be absolutely livid and escalating if you are not getting an answer (because if they're not jumping quickly on this it's because they know they fucked up and are trying to cover their tracks) with the alarmed urgency it deserves.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:06 AM on August 15, 2023 [32 favorites]

Here's an Ask a Manager question re: paycheck error. The situation is different, but the upshot is important: it's totally okay for you to be firm, this is a very big deal, and you should be very proactive about getting in touch with the necessary people in HR and payroll, and insisting on a quick response from them.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:15 AM on August 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

Put it in your manager. Tell them you will not work for half the agreed compensation. Tell them to call you when they straighten this out, and then you’ll resume working.
posted by at at 10:28 AM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

The simplest explanation is that it’s a child support garnishment that was intended for someone else. That would explain why you weren’t notified - the person who has a kid and owes child support was.
posted by maleficent at 10:51 AM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is 100% something your HR / people team should be able to 1) explain, and 2) fix (or at least explain why it can't be fixed).

I wonder if your company uses an outside payroll processor if the payroll processor could have applied the garnishment to the wrong person rather than it being your HR that did it. But it's still on your HR to track this down and help you resolve it.
posted by jzb at 11:00 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

You might also start doing some legwork to find an attorney if this is instead a case of mistaken identity- e.g. you share a birthday and name with someone who is behind in child support.
posted by rockindata at 11:10 AM on August 15, 2023

Response by poster: Good news I don’t have a kid. Something is wrong with the paycheck. It took several call centers, and a stressful morning including one person insisting my pay was correct when it was clearly listed on the pay stub.
posted by geoff. at 11:40 AM on August 15, 2023 [46 favorites]

If that call didn't immediately fix things then I agree with what at is saying above.

Inform your direct management that you're behind on salary and you will not return until the issue is fixed and your missing wages have been put in your bank account. This thing can be fixed in 24 hours if enough pressure is applied to the right people.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:53 AM on August 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

I do payroll and my money is on the garnishment belonging to the employee whose name is listed either immediately before or after yours in the payroll system and the payroll person fucked up and clicked the wrong person when setting it up.

The process to send a copy of the garnishment notice to the employee (usually email) and the process to set up the garnishment (adding a recurring deduction in the payroll system) are usually separate tasks, so I'm guessing the correct employee (not you) got the notice.

Some payroll software makes it way too easy to make changes on the wrong employee. I'm glad my biggest fuck up thus far is switching a $16.50 reimbursement and a $30.00 reimbursement.
posted by Jacqueline at 3:26 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ditto your HR are idiots.

Basically, someone owes (something), and they found that someone through job (and taxes) and decided to garnish wages by sending a garnishment order to your employer. Somehow, YOUR wages got garnished. And I'm assuming you don't owe anyone anything.

You are supposed to be notified immediately upon the paycheck to dispute it. Google "wage garnish law (state name)" and see what's legal and what's not. HR should have a copy of the court order authorizing the garnishment.
posted by kschang at 3:31 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

On the off chance you are union represented, this is also something you could have your union representative look into if it seems like nothing is happening to correct the error. A useful phrase for getting payroll to pay the additional amount right away and not roll it into the next paycheck deposit is "that would cause me significant financial hardship", repeat as many times as needed.
posted by lizard music at 6:06 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

Start checking out the web pages of your state's Dept of Labor. They will generally with wage theft, which this is, until shown otherwise.
posted by theora55 at 12:57 PM on August 16, 2023

Another thing: I haven't seen a wage garnishment of 50% before. Indeed, checking wage garnishment rule shows that Federal limit is 25% of "disposable income" (which is LESS than raw income) usually applies, except child and spousal support garnishments, which can go as high as 60%, or even higher if there are delinquencies.

See solosuit explanation on wage garnishments.

You really need to find out who is garnishing your wages from your payroll or HR. They MUST know. If not, you can sue them for violating various laws. See Employee Rights: Dept of Labor rules on Wage Garnishment.
posted by kschang at 8:22 PM on August 17, 2023