A family law judge may order wage garnishment if a parent is in arrears of child support payments for too long. Refusing to pay child support could lead to wage garnishment in South Carolina, which means the child support payments will be automatically taken out of your wages before you are paid. Wage garnishment requires a court order. It is a court order for an employer to automatically withhold a portion of a paycheck, to send directly to someone the employee owes. Instead of the full paycheck going to the employee, who can then pay off the institution he or she owes, the money goes straight from the employer to the debtor.
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State law does place a limit on how much the courts can garnish a person’s wage for child support. However, the limit is relatively high. Up to 65% of net wages can go toward unpaid child support debt. If you owe money for other reasons besides child support, the maximum caps at just 25% of wages. Child support orders, however, come with higher wage garnishment maximums. The maximum is 50% if you have more than one dependent, but 60% with no other dependents. If you are more than 12 weeks in arrears, however, the courts can take up to 65% of your net wages.
