An employee's wages are garnished for the first time due to a single judgment. May the employer fire the employee simply because of that one garnishment?

Explanation

Labor Code §2929(b) forbids discharging an employee because wages have been garnished for the payment of one judgment, or because garnishment has merely been threatened, and voids any contract term giving less protection; the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. §1674(a), is to the same effect. (a) concedes the discharge rule but substitutes a pay cut, which is a retaliatory reduction in wages and no safer than firing. (b) is the pre-1970 common-law position. (d) invents a dollar threshold; the protection turns on the number of separate indebtednesses, not the size of the debt, and it is garnishments for multiple separate judgments that put the protection at risk.