What Is Wage Garnishment? How Is Wage Garnishment Calculated?

Although wage garnishment arises from an employee’s personal debt, the service of a garnishment notice also gives rise to legal and operational obligations for the employer. In particular, circumstances such as multiple garnishments, maintenance claims, termination of employment, or compensation payments require an assessment beyond a standard wage deduction.

For this reason, wage garnishment is a process that should be managed in coordination among human resources, payroll, accounting, and, where necessary, legal departments.

What Is the Legal Basis for Wage Garnishment?

The principles governing wage garnishment require the provisions of labor law concerning the protection of wages to be considered together with the relevant enforcement law provisions.

Article 35 of Labor Law No. 4857, titled "Protected Portion of Wages", "generally prohibits the garnishment or assignment of more than one-quarter of an employee’s monthly wages. The provision also addresses amounts determined by a judge for dependants and preserves the rights of maintenance creditors".

Article 410 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 also protects wage claims and provides that future wage claims cannot validly be assigned or pledged.

The principal provisions governing wage garnishment within enforcement proceedings are set out in the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law No. 2004. Article 83, titled “Assets Subject to Partial Garnishment” provides that "wages, allowances, all types of remuneration and certain other income may be garnished after deducting the amount deemed necessary by the enforcement officer for the livelihood of the debtor and the debtor’s family. It further provides that the amount to be garnished may not be less than one-quarter and that, where there are multiple garnishments, they are placed in order of priority, with deductions for a subsequent garnishment beginning only after the preceding garnishment has been completed."

For ordinary debts involving employee wages covered by Labor Law No. 4857, the general enforcement provisions are read together with the wage protection rules, generally resulting in a one-quarter deduction. Other employment statuses, special categories of claims, and special protection provisions require separate assessment. Payroll teams must therefore consider the type and scope of the garnishment, existing garnishments, and any maintenance claim.

How Is Wage Garnishment Applied?

Wage garnishment is not a voluntary payroll deduction made simply because an employee informs the employer of a debt. For the employer, the process begins when a wage garnishment notice from the competent enforcement authority is duly served.

In general, the process proceeds as follows:

• Enforcement proceedings are initiated against the employee.
• The enforcement office sends a wage garnishment notice to the employer.
• The employer checks whether the employee’s employment relationship is continuing and verifies the employee’s wage status.
• If other garnishments have previously been served in respect of the employee, the existing order of priority is determined.
• The requested information is submitted to the enforcement office.
• The payroll deduction is made for the garnishment whose turn has been reached.
• The deducted amount is transferred to the relevant enforcement file.
• The process is monitored until the garnishment ends or the employee’s employment relationship terminates.

The employer does not assume the employee’s debt. Rather, the employer transfers the garnishable portion of its existing wage payment obligation to the enforcement office for the relevant case in accordance with the garnishment notice served upon it.

How Much of a Salary Can Be Garnished?

Under Article 35 of Labor Law No. 4857, no more than one-quarter of an employee’s monthly wage may generally be garnished. For ordinary debts within this scope, the general wage garnishment rate is 25%.

However, it would be incorrect to generalize that “exactly 25% of the net wage is deducted in every wage garnishment.” Special provisions apply to maintenance claims. In addition, the garnishment of payments that do not constitute monthly wages, such as severance pay and payment in lieu of notice (notice pay), is assessed differently.

Therefore, when determining the deduction, the following should be assessed together:

Type of garnishment + nature of payment + scope of the enforcement notice + existing order of garnishments

Note: Article 71 of Law No. 6183 generally sets garnishment limits of one-quarter to one-third for the income categories it covers. For monthly income not exceeding the minimum wage, the maximum is one-tenth. Special wage protection provisions and the legislation governing the particular garnishment must also be considered.

How Is Wage Garnishment Calculated?

The garnishment rate is not applied directly to the employee’s gross wage. Statutory payroll calculations are completed first, taking into account employee social security and unemployment insurance contributions, applicable taxes, and exemptions. The deduction is then calculated using the relevant net wage.

For example, consider an employee who is subject to a single ordinary wage garnishment and whose net wage subject to garnishment is TRY 48,000:

TRY 48,000 × 25% = TRY 12,000

In this example, TRY 12,000 is transferred to the enforcement office for the relevant case instead of being paid to the employee.

Wage garnishment does not reduce the employee’s social security contribution or tax base. It is a separate deduction from the net payment after statutory payroll calculations have been completed.

Note: The garnishment of incentive payments and bonuses depends on the legal nature of the payment and any applicable special provisions. Court of Cassation decisions apply the one-quarter limit to bonuses that qualify as wages. If an enforcement notice requires the full payment to be garnished, its compatibility with the statutory limits should be reviewed with the legal team, and clarification or correction should be sought from the enforcement office where necessary. The employer should not unilaterally treat the notice as invalid.

What Should an Employer Do Upon Receiving a Wage Garnishment Notice?

The employer should first verify the employee details, enforcement office, file number, and service information specified in the garnishment notice. It should then determine whether the employee is still employed at the workplace and whether any other garnishment has previously been served in respect of that employee.

In practice, it is important to keep records of the following information:

• Enforcement office and file number
• Date of service of the garnishment notice
• Nature of the garnishment
• Employee’s wage information
• Existing order of garnishments
• Deduction start date
• Deductions and payments made
• Whether the file is active, pending, or closed

The employer must provide the information requested by the enforcement office and fulfill the obligations specified in the garnishment notice within the applicable time limits. Therefore, the official date of service should not be confused with the date on which the document reaches the human resources or payroll department.

The employer should not refrain from implementing a garnishment at the employee’s request or stop deductions before receiving the necessary notification from the competent authority.

What Happens If There Are Multiple Wage Garnishments?

An employer may receive wage garnishment notices from several enforcement cases concerning the same employee. For ordinary debts, separate 25% deductions are not made simultaneously for each case; the order of garnishments must be followed.

Under Article 83 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, garnishments are placed in order of priority. Payment for the next garnishment in line does not begin until the deduction for the preceding garnishment has been completed.

For example:

Once the deduction relating to File A has ended, File B becomes active, followed by File C.

Therefore, payroll systems should maintain records not only of active garnishments but also of those awaiting their turn.

Maintenance claims, however, should be assessed separately within this general priority structure.

How Is Wage Garnishment Applied to Maintenance Claims?

Maintenance claims constitute an important exception to the one-quarter limitation applicable to wage garnishment. Article 35 of the Labor Law expressly reserves the rights of maintenance creditors.

It is important to distinguish between ongoing monthly maintenance payments and maintenance arrears.

Ongoing maintenance payments determined by a court and required to be paid regularly are intended to meet ongoing living expenses. Therefore, the general one-quarter limitation does not apply when ongoing maintenance payments are deducted from wages.

Maintenance arrears from previous periods are treated differently from ongoing maintenance. General wage garnishment provisions apply to their collection, while their priority in relation to other cases must be assessed in the context of the particular enforcement proceedings.

For example, if an employee earns a net monthly wage of TRY 60,000 and has a court-ordered ongoing monthly maintenance obligation of TRY 18,000 covered by the enforcement notice, the maintenance deduction may amount to 30% of the wage. The ordinary one-quarter limit does not apply to ongoing maintenance payments.

If the employee is also subject to an ordinary wage garnishment, the application of that garnishment should be assessed separately by taking into account the existing files and enforcement instructions.

What Happens to Wage Garnishment When an Employee Leaves Employment?

When the employment contract of an employee subject to garnishment ends, the employer’s obligation to pay ongoing wages also ends. However, leaving employment does not allow the employer simply to treat the enforcement case as closed without taking any action.

The relevant enforcement office must be notified immediately that the employee has left employment. The nature of each payment in the final payroll must also be assessed separately.

Upon termination, different receivables may arise, including:

• Final-period wages
• Payment for unused annual leave
• Incentive payments and bonuses
• Severance pay
• Notice pay

It would not be correct to treat all these items as monthly wages and automatically subject them to the 25% garnishment limit.

Can Severance Pay and Notice Pay Be Garnished?

Severance pay and payment in lieu of notice do not have the same legal nature as monthly wages. In its decision dated 27 December 2004, case no. 2004/22540 and decision no. 2004/26972, the 12th Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation stated that these payments may be garnished in full. Any deduction must remain within the scope of the relevant debt and garnishment.

Accordingly, it should not be assumed that monthly wages and severance pay or notice pay are subject to the same garnishment rate in the final payroll. The nature of the payment and the scope of the request in the enforcement file should be assessed together.

How Should Wage Garnishment Be Shown on Payroll?

Wage garnishment should be shown on the payroll as a separate deduction from the net wage.

For example:

*The gross and net amounts are illustrative assumptions used solely to show where the garnishment deduction appears in payroll; they are not a gross-to-net calculation for a particular period or employee.

In this example, the employee’s net wage after payroll calculations is TRY 53,000. Of this amount, TRY 13,250 is paid into the enforcement office for the relevant case, while the remaining TRY 39,750 is paid to the employee.

Accordingly, wage garnishment does not alter the employee’s net wage entitlement or statutory bases; it affects how much of the net wage is paid to the employee and how much is transferred to the enforcement office for the relevant case.

What Happens If the Employer Fails to Make the Wage Garnishment Deduction?

When a wage garnishment notice is duly served on an employer, the employer must fulfill the obligations imposed upon it under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law.

Articles 355 and 356 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law are particularly relevant to the employer’s obligations concerning wage garnishment and the consequences that may arise if those obligations are not fulfilled.

If the employer pays an amount to the employee that should have been deducted under an existing garnishment, this does not automatically discharge the employer’s obligation. Where the statutory conditions are met, amounts that were not deducted or transferred to the enforcement office may be recovered from the employer.

The following should therefore be checked together:

• Timely processing of the garnishment notice
• Application of the correct order of priority
• Deduction of the correct amount
• Transfer of the payment to the enforcement office for the correct case

When Does Wage Garnishment End?

Wage garnishment deductions may end when the debt is settled in the enforcement case or the competent authority lifts the garnishment. Leaving employment ends the former employer’s obligation to pay ongoing wages, but does not automatically extinguish the debt or close the case. The garnishment treatment of final payments must be assessed separately.

However, an employee’s statement that “I have paid my debt” should not, by itself, be regarded as sufficient grounds to stop the garnishment deduction from payroll.

Similarly, the employer seeing in its own records that the principal debt has been fully paid may not necessarily mean that the enforcement file has been definitively closed. The current outstanding balance may differ due to interest, attorney’s fees, charges, or enforcement costs.

Therefore, the official status of the relevant enforcement file should be taken as the basis for terminating deductions.

Note: While wage payments continue, deductions should not be stopped solely on the employee’s statement or the employer’s own calculation that the debt has been paid. The current case status and the official notification lifting the garnishment or ending the deduction should be used as the basis for action.

Managing Wage Garnishment Processes with Bordromat®

In wage garnishment processes, it is not sufficient for payroll teams merely to calculate the monthly deduction amount. Employee-level deductions, wage calculations, and payroll results must also be managed consistently.

The Bordromat Payroll Process Management System supports the centralized management of payroll calculations, enabling statutory and other employee deductions to be managed together with payroll processes. Accurately reflecting deductions made from net wages, such as wage garnishments, in payroll and tracking them on an employee basis are important parts of this process.

Particularly in organizations with large workforces, standardizing payroll processes helps reduce the risk of errors arising from manual calculations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can wage garnishment be applied without the employee’s consent?

Yes. When a wage garnishment notice is duly served on the employer by the competent enforcement authority, the employee’s separate consent is not required. The employer acts in accordance with the relevant garnishment notice and applicable legislation.

Does wage garnishment automatically transfer to a new employer when an employee changes jobs?

No. When the wage relationship with the former employer ends, the regular wage deductions also end. However, the debt itself does not cease to exist. For wage garnishment to be applied by the new employer, the necessary steps within the enforcement proceedings must be directed to the new employer.

Can incentive payments and bonuses be garnished?

Yes. However, the garnishable amount depends on the legal nature of the payment and any applicable special provisions. Court of Cassation decisions apply the one-quarter limit to bonuses that qualify as wages. Incentive payments and bonuses should not automatically be assumed to be garnishable in full.

Can an employee’s wages be subject to multiple garnishments?

Yes. Multiple garnishment notices may be issued in respect of the same employee. Ordinary wage garnishments are placed in order of priority, and payment for a subsequent garnishment does not begin until the preceding garnishment has ended. Maintenance claims are assessed separately.

Can more than 1/4 be deducted under a wage garnishment?

As a general rule, no more than one-quarter of an employee’s monthly wage may be garnished. However, maintenance claims constitute an important exception to this rule. In addition, receivables that do not constitute monthly wages, such as severance pay and notice pay, may be subject to different garnishment rules.

Does wage garnishment reduce the tax or social security contribution base?

No. Wage garnishment does not reduce the income tax or social security contribution base. It is applied to the net payment after statutory payroll calculations have been completed.

Can an employer lift a garnishment when an employee states that the debt has been paid?

No. The employee’s statement alone is not sufficient. The employer should rely on the official status regarding the lifting of the garnishment or termination of the deduction.

Conclusion

Although wage garnishment arises from an employee’s personal debt, once the garnishment notice reaches the employer, it becomes a process involving payroll procedures and employer obligations. In addition to correctly calculating the deduction amount, it is important to maintain the order of garnishments, assess maintenance claims separately, transfer payments to the enforcement office for the correct case, and properly manage the employee’s departure from employment.

Therefore, wage garnishment should not be regarded merely as a standard 25% payroll deduction. The nature of the garnishment, the type of payment made to the employee, existing garnishments, and the instructions in the enforcement file should be considered together. A controlled process established among human resources, payroll, accounting, and, where necessary, legal departments supports both payroll accuracy and the proper fulfillment of the employer’s obligations in enforcement proceedings.