12-808.Duty of employer.

Section 12-808 is the operational core of Part 8 for employers. Once served, the employer must keep paying the debtor the exempt portion of wages, but must hold any non-exempt wages -- due now or coming due later -- subject to the court's order, up to the amount owed on the judgment and costs. That obligation creates a lien on wages due at the time of service, a lien that continues over later earnings until the judgment and costs are paid in full, unless the employment relationship ends sooner or the underlying judgment is vacated or modified. A federal agency employer whose creditor is represented by an attorney follows a different track: rather than holding funds for the court, it pays non-exempt wages directly to the creditor's attorney, who then holds them subject to further court order and reports to the court; the federal employer's periodic payments themselves count as a sufficient answer to the interrogatories.

Except for that federal-agency arrangement, the employer must file a written answer under oath by the return date (or a later date the court allows for cause), stating the wages due for the payroll periods ending just before service and summarizing how it computed the non-exempt amount, then mail or deliver a copy of that answer to the debtor. Liens obtained this way rank by when they were obtained -- a lien has priority over any later lien obtained under this Part, except that liens for spousal or child support have priority over every other lien regardless of order, and subsequent ordinary summonses take effect in the sequence they were served. The Illinois Supreme Court may also allow employers to file their interrogatory answers by fax.

Once the employer's sworn answer is in, the court enters an order compelling the employer to deduct, for each pay period where the Section 12-804 exemptions and any child support garnishments still leave funds to remit, the same amount Section 12-803 caps: the lesser of 15% of gross wages or the amount disposable earnings exceed 45 times the applicable minimum hourly wage (federal, or Illinois's if greater for a summons served on or after January 1, 2006). The order requires the employer to remit those deducted wages to the creditor or the creditor's attorney monthly. And if the employer later stops remitting without a lawful excuse -- the debtor's bankruptcy filing, the debtor leaving the job, or a higher-priority support order are named examples of lawful excuses -- the court, on the creditor's motion, enters a conditional judgment against the employer for the balance due, followed by a Summons After Conditional Judgment; if the employer does not show cause why that judgment shouldn't stand, it becomes final against the employer along with additional court costs.