15 U.S.C. § 1672
Section 1672 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 140 court decisions — leading case Burgess v. United States (2008)
Most recently applied in United States v. Romeo (May 2025)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 15 U.S.C. § 1673 · 15 U.S.C. § 1671 · 15 U.S.C. § 1677
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purposes of this subchapter:
(a) The term “earnings” means compensation paid or payable for personal services, whether denominated as wages, salary, commission, bonus, or otherwise, and includes periodic payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program.
(b) The term “disposable earnings” means that part of the earnings of any individual remaining after the deduction from those earnings of any amounts required by law to be withheld.
(c) The term “garnishment” means any legal or equitable procedure through which the earnings of any individual are required to be withheld for payment of any debt.