min wage

NaeNae55

Ok. I am in a new situation here. I have an employee who has had to be off for medical reasons and consequently has leave without pay. This employee also has a child support order in place. When I figure if this will take the employee below min wage, do I count all the hours in the pay period, or those worked/paid?

Thanks for your help!

PAhr

If the employee has no earnings then there is no child support payment made. I've had this situation. I called the child support office and advise that no payment could be made through the company because the employee was currently not working. Also make them aware that you will need a new order if arrears are to be paid upon his return (some people will continue making support payments while off work, so never assume anything and do not take the more than usual amount until you recieve a court order for the added support). Now if he only clears $100.00 and his support obligation is $99.00 then he gets a check for $1.00. The child always comes first. If the employee did not earn enough to pay his entire support obligation (owes $99.00 but only cleared $98.00) then you need to inform the child support office that the employee did not have enough earnings to meet his obligation that week and they will take it from there. Also, if your employee recieves incentive pay or a Christmas bonus you do not deduct child support from these. Child support is an average of the yearly income. All income, including these extras, have already been averaged in his total support obligation which is paid out over 52 weeks. If you deduct from the extras the person recieving the support will get more than the yearly amount she is supposed to. We assumed that we deducted from everything and when we found out we had a very upset employee who recieved less than a third of his Christmas bonus and the woman refused to return the money. The employee ended up with an overpayment of support and we also gave the employee what we had deducted because it was our mistake, but one that will never be made again.

NaeNae55

Thanks PAhr for your reply. I am still a little confused. I have read that you cannot withhold for court ordered deductions that reduce the employee to less than minimum wage. Is that just for bad debt? I assumed it covered things like child support and other domestic orders, but you sound like child support orders do not apply. Please clarify.

Pork

NaeNae55: My Handy Dandy cheat sheet provided by the Department of labor says effective Sept 1, 1997 with no known changes "....$154.50 is the minimum one can earn and be considered to have aggregate disposable earnings". 50% of everything over $154.50, if supporting other dependents or 60% if not supporting any other person. $1.00 earned above the $154.50 is disposable income and you give 50% or 60% of the $1.00, otherwise the employee does not have disposable income. Federal and State Taxes are exempt from this Federal Wage Garnishment Law. Give me a fax number and I'll send you a copy. Pork

Pork

NaeNae55: Additionally, all other garnishments are limited to a total of 25%, sometimes the debt might have to wait for a period of time before getting any pay. We put them in order of 1st come 1st serve and we notify the court garnishment order of when we will be able to make payments. For those paying Taxes everyone including child support may have to wait. We have three right now paying large sums of back taxes both state and fed/also Department of Education loans get priority over others. Child support for the most part is 1st priority when we can. We also make sure the Feds know when they will be hurting an on going child support issue and they will then usually reduce their demand and stretch it out longer, but get heir money. Pork

NaeNae55

Pork:
I am putting my fax number in your mail box. Thanks!!!

bgrimes

>NaeNae55: My Handy Dandy cheat sheet provided by the Department of
>labor says effective Sept 1, 1997 with no known changes "....$154.50
>is the minimum one can earn and be considered to have aggregate
>disposable earnings". 50% of everything over $154.50, if supporting
>other dependents or 60% if not supporting any other person. $1.00
>earned above the $154.50 is disposable income and you give 50% or 60%
>of the $1.00, otherwise the employee does not have disposable income.
>Federal and State Taxes are exempt from this Federal Wage Garnishment
>Law. Give me a fax number and I'll send you a copy. Pork


Pork....may 'I' impose on this this 'cheat sheet' also? My fax number is: 636-940-8499, Attn: Barb