Data and Code for: Wage Garnishment in the United States: New Facts from Administrative Payroll Records

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Anthony DeFusco, Northwestern ; Brandon Enriquez, MIT; Margaret Yellen, MIT

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
code			03/20/2023 03:27:PM
data			06/02/2023 03:42:PM
output			03/20/2023 03:35:PM
raw			03/20/2023 03:26:PM
Readme.pdf	application/pdf	113.1 KB	06/02/2023 11:09:AM

Project Citation:

DeFusco, Anthony, Enriquez, Brandon, and Yellen, Margaret. Data and Code for: Wage Garnishment in the United States: New Facts from Administrative Payroll Records. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-02-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/E186941V1

Project Description

Summary:

Wage garnishment allows creditors to deduct money directly from workers’ paychecks to repay 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.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D14 Household Saving; Personal Finance
      G50 Household Finance: General
      J01 Labor Economics: General

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 2014 – 2019

Universe:

Workers employed by firms that contract with ADP for payroll services

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-02-15]

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DDI 2.5

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