Administrative Wage Garnishment Employer FAQs

AWG is a debt collection process authorized by federal law that allows a federal agency to order a non-federal employer to withhold up to 15 percent of an employee's disposable income to pay a delinquent non-tax debt without first getting a court order. See 31 U.S.C. § 3720D; 31 CFR § 285.11.

For more information, read about Administrative Wage Garnishment (AWG).

A federal agency can use AWG to collect delinquent debt if a debtor is employed and not paying a debt as agreed. AWG may be used to collect a debt even if state law does not allow wage garnishment.

Please reach out to our AWG team at AWGQuestions@fiscal.treasury.gov or contact an AWG Analyst at (888) 826-3127. Hearing impaired persons may use the Federal Relay Service by dialing (800) 877-8339 to reach a Communication Assistant, who will dial the toll-free number for you.

We strongly encourage you to remit amounts garnished electronically. For electronic payments, send withheld monies using the Pay.gov form listed at https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/1234541539. If you are garnishing wages for more than one employee, you must fill out a separate Pay.gov form for each employee. Please use the AWG account number on the form, which is in Box 3 on the AWG Order.

If you are not able to remit amounts garnished electronically, you may send those amounts by check to the St. Louis, MO address listed in the wage garnishment order in Box 9.

Disposable pay includes, but is not limited to, salary, bonuses, commissions, and vacation pay.

If section 2(a) of the AWG Order specifies the dollar amount to be garnished, you do not need to calculate the amount to withhold because it is listed in that section.

If a dollar amount is not listed in section 2(a) of the AWG Order, please fill out the Wage Garnishment Worksheet (SF-329C) to determine what you should withhold from your employee’s salary/wages.

If you need help filling out that worksheet or calculating the amount to withhold, please contact our AWG team at AWGQuestions@fiscal.treasury.gov or contact an AWG Analyst at (888) 826-3127. Hearing impaired persons may use the Federal Relay Service by dialing (800) 877-8339 to reach a Communication Assistant, who will dial the toll-free number for you.

You must start the garnishments immediately. But, if the next pay day is within 10 days after you get this Order and you do not have enough time to implement garnishment by that time, you may start deductions on the second pay day after you get this Order.

You should continue garnishing your employee’s pay until you get notification from us to suspend or discontinue the garnishments.

You must send us the garnished amount in three (3) business days of withholding it.