Create a garnishment

post

https://api.gusto-demo.com/v1/employees/{employee_id}/garnishments

Garnishments, or employee deductions, are fixed amounts or percentages deducted from an employee’s pay. They can be deducted a specific number of times or on a recurring basis. Garnishments can also have maximum deductions on a yearly or per-pay-period bases. Common uses for garnishments are court-ordered payments for child support or back taxes. Some companies provide loans to their employees that are repaid via garnishments.

scope: garnishments:write

Path Params

employee_id

string

required

The UUID of the employee

Body Params

Shared request body properties for creating or updating a garnishment.

active

boolean

Defaults to true

Whether or not this garnishment is currently active.

amount

string

required

The amount of the garnishment. Either a percentage or a fixed dollar amount. Represented as a float, e.g. "8.00".

description

string

The description of the garnishment.

court_ordered

boolean

required

Whether the garnishment is court ordered.

garnishment_type

string | null

enum

The specific type of garnishment for court ordered garnishments.

Allowed:

times

integer | null

Defaults to null

The number of times to apply the garnishment. Ignored if recurring is true.

recurring

boolean

Defaults to false

Whether the garnishment should recur indefinitely.

annual_maximum

string | null

Defaults to null

The maximum deduction per annum. A null value indicates no maximum. Represented as a float, e.g. "200.00".

pay_period_maximum

string | null

Defaults to null

The maximum deduction per pay period. A null value indicates no maximum. Represented as a float, e.g. "16.00".

deduct_as_percentage

boolean

Defaults to false

Whether the amount should be treated as a percentage to be deducted per pay period.

total_amount

string | null

A maximum total deduction for the lifetime of this garnishment. A null value indicates no maximum.

child_support

object | null

Additional child support order details

Headers

X-Gusto-API-Version

string

enum

Defaults to 2026-02-01

Determines the date-based API version associated with your API call. If none is provided, your application's minimum API version is used.

Allowed:

Responses

201Example response

404Not Found The requested resource does not exist. Make sure the provided UUID is valid.

422Unprocessable Entity This may happen when the body of your request contains errors such as invalid_attribute_value, or the request fails due to an invalid_operation. See the Errors Categories guide for more details.