A wage garnishment is a court order that requires an employer to withhold a certain amount of money from an employee’s wages and send it directly to a creditor. In the United States, student loans are one of the few types of debt that can be collected through wage garnishment without a court order.
The Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of your disposable income to repay defaulted student loans. Disposable income is the amount of money you have left after taxes and other deductions have been taken out of your paycheck.