1 Employment in Florida § 5-2

Summary

Under certain circumstances, an employer may be asked to pay a portion of an employee’s wages directly to a third person pursuant to an “assignment of wages.” This is an agreement whereby the employee assignor allows a creditor assignee to take a portion of the employee’s wages if the employee defaults on an obligation. As a general rule, such voluntary assignments are permissible in Florida.15 However, Florida statutes provide that no wage assignment given to secure a consumer loan from a finance company or other similar nonbanking institution is valid.16 The statutes further provide that certain other monetary interests may not be assigned, including unemployment benefits17 and various public employee pension, annuity, or other retirement benefits.18