Wage garnishments are really annoying, especially in states that don’t observe the Federal minimum wage ($5.15 / hour), but instead employ their own ($6.40 an hour here in Florida).
Here’s why:
[tag]Wage Garnishment[/tag]s are calculated against the Federal Minimum wage, rather than the State minimum wage. So, they assume that a person, once they earn 30 times Federal Minimum Wage (that is, work 30 hours at minimum wage) is free to have their money touched.

That means I take home FEDERAL minimum wage pay, even though my pay rate is well over that. Quite seriously, I think there has to be something I can do about this, because that seems a bit skewed. Florida raised their minimum wage because the Federal rate wasn’t enough to live on in this state.

Here’s the math:
$5.15 * 30 = $154.50 * 4 = $618.00
$6.40 * 30 = $192.00 * 4 = $768.00

$768 - $618 = $150.
(all numbers are post-tax amounts)

If this all were calculated against state minimums, I would still struggle, but not as badly. Really. After gas, food, and the occasional self purchase (usually something about $4 or $5, like a movie rental or three at work), I wouldn’t be left quite as short.

As it stands, I need a part time job, working the same number of hours there that I work at Albertson’s, at the same pay rate, to hopefully break even. This assumes that my wages are garnished on the new job, as well as the current, and is thusly $1236.00; $1050 is needed to pay the bills. This would leave me with $186 to pay for gas, food, and clothing (yay, I need more uniform pants).
I wouldn’t complain if the second job’s wages didn’t get garnished, though… (30 hours, at $8.30 an hour? $249, before taxes.)

Ah, well. Time to go make the industrial machine some money.