46. Definitions. In this article unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:
1. "Assignment" means any assignment of or order for payment of any earnings, whether given outright or as security. "Assignment" shall not include a payroll deduction, nor any part of earnings required by law to be withheld in payment of taxes, nor such sums as may be deducted by the employer for payment to a labor union or to a trust fund for the benefit of employees, pursuant to agreement in writing either with the employee or with a labor union of which the employee is a member.
2. "Payroll deductions" means only such sums as an employee may in writing authorize his employer to pay out on the employee's behalf, where the authorization is revocable, and does not purport to create any enforceable right in any third party.
3. "Earnings" means any salary, wages, commissions, or other compensation for services. "Future earnings" means earnings which become payable by an employer, to the assignor or persons claiming under him, after the execution of the instrument of assignment.
4. "Indebtedness" means any obligation to pay money, whether as principal, guarantor or surety, including such obligations arising out of loans, purchases of real or personal property, services rendered, or any other transaction whatsoever.
5. "Employer" means any person owing earnings to an assignor, whether such earnings were due when the assignment was executed, or later became due, and whether the employment was existing when an assignment was made, or did not commence until later.
6. "Assignor" means one who executes an assignment.
7. "Assignee" means one to whom any sum is payable under an assignment.
8. "Garnishment" means any levy on execution, attachment, sequestration, proceedings to enforce a judgment or other legal process by which a creditor or other claimant to any portion of an employee's earnings stops payment by an employer to an employee or obtains payment due the creditor. "Garnishment" shall not include an order for installment payments to a judgment creditor.
Last modified: February 3, 2019