Wage Garnishment in the United States: New Facts from Administrative Payroll Records

Anthony DeFusco, Brandon M. Enriquez and Margaret B. Yellen

No 30724, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Wage garnishment allows creditors to deduct money directly from workers’ paychecks to re-pay defaulted debts. We document new facts about wage garnishment between 2014–2019 using data from a large payroll processor who distributes paychecks to approximately 20%of U.S. private-sector workers. As of 2019, over one in every 100 workers was being garnished for delinquent debt. The average garnished worker experiences garnishment for five months, during which approximately 11% of gross earnings is remitted to their creditor(s). The beginning of a new garnishment is associated with an increase in job turnover rates but no intensive margin change in hours worked.

JEL-codes: D14 G5 J22 K35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12
Note: CF LE LS
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published as Anthony A. DeFusco & Brandon Enriquez & Maggie Yellen, 2024. "Wage Garnishment in the United States: New Facts from Administrative Payroll Records," American Economic Review: Insights, vol 6(1), pages 38-54.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30724.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Wage Garnishment in the United States: New Facts from Administrative Payroll Records (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30724

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w30724

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by (wpc@nber.org).