Like most states, Georgia permits creditors that follow proper procedures to execute wage garnishments to collect unpaid debts. A wage garnishment is the practice of taking a portion of your post-tax earnings and applying the funds toward your debt balance without your consent. Whether a creditor can garnish part-time income in Georgia depends on several factors.
Presence of Judgment
Creditors cannot garnish wages in Georgia, except those involving unpaid child support, taxes and student loans, without obtaining a legal judgment against you for the debt. Civil lawsuits in Georgia are typically handled by county magistrate courts. The creditor begins the judgment process by filing a lawsuit in the magistrate court in your county. Unless you can show cause for dismissing the lawsuit, such as evidence that you have satisfied the debt, the magistrate court will issue a judgment against you for the debt, court costs and interest.
Earnings
A creditor's ability to garnish your wages in Georgia is not dependent on whether you are a full-time or part-time employee. Instead, it depends on your earnings. Georgia follows federal law, which prohibits wage garnishment if you earn less than 30 times the minimum federally mandated hourly wage per week. If you earn more than this amount per week, your wages are at risk of garnishment, regardless of how many hours you work. For example, if you only work 20 hours per week, but earn $25 per hour, your earnings would exceed the protected earnings threshold.
Presence of Other Garnishments
Georgia and federal law limit garnishment to 25 percent of your post-tax income for most debts, except child support and taxes. This limitation applies regardless of how many garnishment orders have been issued by separate creditors. If another creditor has already placed a garnishment order on your wages, the court may divide the 25 percent garnishment equally between your judgment creditors, or may allow one judgment creditor a higher percentage than another. It may also prohibit the new judgment creditor from garnishing your wages until the current garnishment is complete.
Bankruptcy
If you include a debt for which the creditor has obtained a judgment in a bankruptcy filing, the creditor typically cannot execute a garnishment order. If the judgment creditor has already begun garnishing your part-time wages, the bankruptcy filing will stop the garnishment.
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