• Pennsylvania law does not allow payday loan creditors to garnish wages of debtors.check in macro image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com
  
  If a debtor obtains a payday loan, promises to repay that loan and defaults on the loan as a result of nonpayment, the lender will seek remedies to have the debtor repay that loan. In Pennsylvania, certain creditors can garnish a debtor's wages to repay the loan. With wage garnishment, the garnishee, the debtor's employer, freezes the debtor's wages and pays the wages to the creditor instead of the debtor.
  
  

Garnishment

• Garnishment occurs when a creditor directs a business that is holding funds for the debtor or who is about to pay wages to the debtor to place a freeze on the money and distribute the money to the creditor. The party holding the funds is warned not to pay the funds to the debtor and to inform the court as to how much money is being held. If the garnishee pays the money to the debtor after the money should have been put on hold, the garnishee may be held liable to pay the amount of the money held to the creditor.
  
  

Exemptions

• Although a Pennsylvania debtor may owe a debt to the payday loan lender, state law does not allow certain actions to take place. Exemption laws allow debtors to keep property they would otherwise need to lead normal lives. Exemption laws list the type of property a debtor can keep from being used to pay creditors. Each state has its own exemption laws. The federal government has exemption laws, as well. As far as wage exemptions go, debtors may keep 25 percent of their income or the amount by which the debtor's income exceeds 30 times the minimum wage, whichever is greater. Thus, in most states a debtor's wages may be garnished up to these amounts.
  
  

Exceptions

• The state of Pennsylvania allows its debtors to exempt all of their wages from creditor actions. As a result, debtors' wages can generally not be garnished within the state of Pennsylvania. Allowing a debtor's wages to be garnished could cause more financial problems for the debtor that could result in the debtor relying on the state for support. There are a few exceptions to the rule, however. Pennsylvania law allows wages to be garnished to satisfy the following debts: judgments for child support or spousal support; obligations relating to final divorce distribution; PHEAA student loans; back rent on a residential lease; restitution for criminal matters; and certain types of taxes.