Mo. attorney general sues companies for not garnishing wages

When the payroll department at Procter & Gamble Paper Products in Cape Girardeau gets a court order that one of its 1,400 employees must get his wages garnished because of child support, there's not a second thought.

"It's our responsibility because of the law," said Mike Jennewein, human resources director at the P&G plant. "We deal with that sort of thing and we just take care of it. P&G tends to be a good corporate citizen -- that's part of our responsibility and we're going to do it."

Not all Missouri businesses, however, are such good sports about using company time, manpower and energy toward a goal that has nothing to do with the bottom line. In fact, some fail to make withholdings from a worker's pay even after the court has ordered it.

Now, with new authority to go after so-called "deadbeat" parents, Attorney General Jay Nixon is putting those business owners on notice: Fail to withhold your workers' overdue child support payments, and you will be sued and fined.

In some cases, he's already done it. Since his office took jurisdiction of statewide child support enforcement from the Department of Social Services on July 1, 25 Missouri companies have had lawsuits filed against them.

The lawsuits seek a total of $127,000 in delinquent payments. The litigation also seeks fines of $500, court costs and attorneys' fees.

"Taking care of kids is everyone's business," Nixon said last week. "Most business owners around the state realize that."

Burden on business

For the most part, they do. But some also point out that it creates an extra burden on business owners who shouldn't be held accountable for the responsibilities of their employees.

"It's appalling that these people don't pay what they're supposed to pay," said Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president and CEO John Mehner. "And if it's the current law, the businesses need to comply with the law. But from a small-business standpoint, it takes time and cost in mailing these checks."

Mehner said he would have less of a problem with the law if there were some sort of compensation for the business owner. But there's not.

"The bottom line is nobody wants those people to not be paying what their supposed to," he said. "The only question is whose responsibility is it to make sure that happens?"

Nixon agrees it's the parents' responsibility. But when they fail, and the court orders their wages garnished, businesses have to comply. He also said that he's sued businesses for varying amounts.

"We've sued, in this first wave, without fear or favor," Nixon said. "We've sued for as much as $10,000 and as little as $67. The $67 might be more important about what's on the breakfast table than $10,000 is."

Businesses also should realize, Nixon said, that if the child-support money doesn't get into the hands of custodial parents, many times those parents apply for -- and get -- public assistance.

"Then that's paid for by the taxpayer," Nixon said. "If they don't get the money, then the state has to pick up the bill. Businesses should realize that doing this is in the best interest of keeping public expenditures down. That helps everybody."

None of the businesses sued is in Cape Girardeau County, Nixon said, though he added another wave of suits is forthcoming. He hopes these first lawsuits serve as a wake-up call.

"We hope there's a deterrent value," he said. "But that doesn't mean we're not watching. We're looking to put some legal caulk in the cracks of the legal system. There's more coming from many counties in Missouri."

Huge problem

No one denies that back-due child support is a huge problem in Missouri.

Nixon office said that of the $2 billion in court-ordered child support payments in Missouri, more than half are either paid late or not at all. He said he hopes Missouri will rise "from the middle of the pack" to the "upper tier" of states.

It also is a problem locally.

There is $77.3 million in back child support due from the 11-county Southeast Missouri area, which includes Cape Girardeau County, according to the state's Department of Social Services.

That total is from 14,000 cases in the same area in which the custodial parent lives.

The noncustodial parent, usually the father, "can be anywhere in the state, in the country or even the world," said Deb Hendricks, an agency spokeswoman. "That's what makes them so hard to track."

The state has tried to lessen the burden on businesses, Hendricks said. Within the past few years, the state stopped requiring that child-support be sent to the circuit clerk's office in the county where the custodial parent lives. They created a "Family Payment Center" in Jefferson City, where all payments are now sent.

"Businesses used to have to send checks to Pulaski County, Jefferson County, Ste. Genevieve, everywhere," she said. "Now they all go to one place."

They've also added an electronic fund transfer that can have the state take the money directly from an employee's check.

"That makes it easier for the business," she said.

Passing on the costs

While several businesses declined comment about the touchy issue, Buz Sutherland of the Small Business Center in Cape Girardeau said it's a case of making the business a tax collector.

"It really does create a burden," Sutherland said. "Nobody likes to see a deadbeat parent skip out on child support. But it does create a burden on the business, particularly small business. It adds to the payroll burden, which is already a complicated process."

This all adds to the cost of doing business, Sutherland said, and those costs are eventually passed on to the consumer.

"Somebody's going to pay it," he said, "and let's face it: It's probably going to be added to the cost of the products or services we use."

Sutherland said it's not an easy issue.

"I just wish more people took their obligations more seriously," he said. "When it comes to money, I'm not sure if our word is our bond as much as it was, and that's a shame."

Automatic deduction

Scott Reynolds, a Cape Girardeau family law attorney, sees cases like this every day, where a parent has refused to live up to his or her responsibilities.

Over half of the cases he's handled have been delinquent. He said wage garnishments are no longer simply ordered when a parent falls behind. Most times, he said, when there is court-ordered child support, the judge will automatically require the paying parent's wages garnished.

"That happens right out of the gate," he said. "That's to make sure you don't allow somebody to get $10,000 to $15,000 behind in child support. It addresses the problem up front."

Some parents even go out of their way to avoid paying child support. Some ask to be paid in cash. Others continually move from job to job and state to state to avoid the payment.

"When money's involved, there's any number of imaginative ways to get around paying child support," he said.

That's why it's so important that businesses understand, and comply with, the law regarding garnishing wages.

"I certainly understand their perspective that it's a burden," he said. "They're asked to be involved in something they have no interest in whatsoever."

But "the burden on the business is minor compared to the burden of the family," Reynolds said.

Glenn Reeves, who owns Horizon Screen Printing, doesn't mind the extra burden when his business gets a court order for an employee to have his or her wages garnished.

"We've always been strict about doing it when we had to," he said.

Reeves also said he understands the necessity of having businesses do it.

"I'm not a big government person, but I don't see how in the world they could collect it otherwise," he said. "If some bum doesn't want to pay it, it makes sense to take it directly from their check."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137