Wage garnishment: exempt earnings.

The Wage Garnishment Law governs earnings withholding orders and provides definitions of certain terms. Existing law requires a levy of execution upon the earnings of a judgment debtor to be made by service of an earnings withholding order upon the debtor's employer. Existing law limits the amount of earnings of a judgment debtor that may be subject to an earnings withholding order to the amount specified by federal law, unless an exception applies. Federal law prohibits the amount of earnings that may be subject to garnishment from exceeding 25% of an individual's weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which the individual's disposable earnings for the week exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable. This bill would define "disposable earnings" as the portion of an individual's earnings that remains after deducting all amounts required to be withheld by law. The bill would also prohibit the amount of an individual judgment debtor's weekly disposable earnings subject to levy under an earnings withholding order from exceeding the lesser of 25% of the individual's weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which the individual's disposable earnings for the week exceed 40 times the state minimum hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable, unless an exception applies. For any pay period other than weekly, the bill would also require the use of certain multipliers to determine a maximum amount subject to levy under an earnings withholding order that is proportional in effect to a calculation based on the amount by which the individual's earnings for a workweek exceed 40 times the state minimum wage, except as specified. This bill would become operative on July 1, 2013. In order to implement these provisions, the bill would also require the Judicial Council to, on or before July 1, 2013, revise the instructions contained in certain documents provided to employers in order to specify the method of computation described above.