Child Support (Involuntary Wage Assignment)

A withholding order for child support can be either for ongoing payments (wage assignment), amounts in arrears (back child support), or both. In many cases, all initial orders for child support require wage withholding unless the court order specifies another method of payment. This means that payroll departments have an increased number of child support withholding orders. In addition, you must calculate the disposable earnings on which to base the deduction, while considering the maximum amount of disposable earnings that can be deducted from the employee. Since each court order varies, the calculation of disposable wages, maximum amounts, and withholding amounts varies by individual. The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Payroll system easily accommodates a variety of child support withholding orders, including the complexities surrounding multiple orders for an employee.

For employees with multiple child support orders, the Wage Attachment Workbench offers the flexibility to prorate amounts when an employee's wages are insufficient to cover all obligations. In such cases, you must determine the priority of each withholding order. To determine priority, employers must comply with the withholding order as well as state regulations. States have adopted three basic methods to handle multiple orders, and each of these methods is incorporated into the Wage Attachment Workbench:

• Priority is given to the first order received, which means that the first order must be completely satisfied before moving onto the next order.

• The available wages can be allocated based on the percentage of each order to the total amount of the orders (prorated).

• The available wages are split equally among all orders.

When an employee owes back child support (arrears), the amount to deduct for an individual can be included with the ongoing support obligation or as a separate wage attachment in the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Payroll system.