Federal laws have some protections for people against wage garnishment to ensure they can pay their living expenses. Pennsylvania goes a step further by placing restrictions on the type of debt and amount of debt creditors can garnish wages for, generally only allowing garnishments for specific types of debt, such as child and spousal support, divorce settlements, student loans, back rent, certain types of taxes, and court-ordered restitution. State law limits the amount of money they can garnish from wages.