BUSINESS SOFTWARE, INC. (BSI) CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION

Principal Place of Employment

Employers should follow the rules of the employee’s primary work state, or ‘principal place of employment’ when determining appropriate garnishment mandates. This is important in particular for child support orders, where the ‘principal place of employment’ state rules are to be used when determining the maximum amount permitted to be withheld for child support, the priorities for withholding and allocating income withheld for multiple withholding orders, and any withholding terms or conditions not specified in the garnishment order. This has been clarified in updates to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA).

Federal law does not define ‘principal place of employment’. The general practice is to define the ‘principal place of employment’ to be the employee’s primary work location, nominally the state in which the employee’s unemployment insurance (UI) taxes are paid. Because there can be exceptions and variations in determining where UI taxes are paid, the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement recommends that employers define a reasonable policy, adhere to it, and apply it consistently to all employees.