How Much Can a Creditor Garnish: Federal Caps and Exemptions

For most consumer debts, a creditor can garnish no more than 25% of your weekly disposable earnings, and nothing at all if your disposable earnings are $217.50 or less. That is the federal ceiling under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and it covers credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and similar judgments. How much a creditor can garnish in your specific case depends on the type of debt, your income, and whether your state sets a stricter limit than federal law.¹

The 25% Rule for Consumer Debts

The federal cap sits in 15 U.S.C. § 1673. Before any calculation happens, your employer works out your disposable earnings: gross pay minus deductions required by law, meaning federal and state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and any state-mandated disability or unemployment contributions. Voluntary deductions like health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, and union dues stay in the pot. They lower your take-home pay but do not lower your disposable earnings for garnishment purposes.²

Once disposable earnings are set, the employer runs two calculations and withholds the smaller amount:

25% of your disposable earnings that week.
The amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. At $7.25 per hour, that threshold is $217.50 per week.

Here’s how it plays out. If your weekly disposable earnings are $500, the first test yields $125 (25% of $500). The second test yields $282.50 ($500 minus $217.50). The employer must use the smaller of the two, so $125 comes out.¹

For lower-wage workers, the second test is the one that matters. If your weekly disposable earnings are $217.50 or less, the calculation produces zero, and zero is always smaller than 25%. Nothing can be garnished.³ The protection fades quickly above that line. At $250 in weekly disposable earnings, the garnishable amount is only $32.50 rather than the full $62.50, because the minimum-wage floor still governs.

Child Support and Alimony Take More

Domestic support orders follow far higher caps. If you are already supporting another spouse or dependent child, up to 50% of your disposable earnings can be taken for a support order. If you are not supporting anyone else, the cap climbs to 60%. Either figure rises by another 5 points, to 55% or 65%, once the support payments are more than 12 weeks overdue.¹

At 65%, a support garnishment can take nearly two-thirds of a paycheck. The 25% ceiling that applies to consumer debts simply does not apply here.

Student Loan Garnishment

Defaulted federal student loans allow administrative wage garnishment, which does not require a court order. The Department of Education, or a guaranty agency acting on its behalf, can order your employer to withhold up to 15% of your disposable earnings.⁴ The 30-times-minimum-wage floor still applies, so if your disposable earnings are at or below $217.50 per week, no student loan garnishment can happen.⁵

One caveat matters. Student loan administrative garnishment is subject to federal CCPA limits but not to state garnishment laws.⁵ Even in a state that bans consumer-debt garnishment outright, the federal government can still collect on a defaulted student loan. Before the withholding starts, the agency must send written notice describing the debt and your right to request a hearing.

IRS Wage Levies

The IRS operates on an entirely different system. Rather than capping the levy at a percentage, the IRS calculates a weekly amount that is exempt, and everything above that amount goes to the government. The exempt figure depends on your filing status and number of dependents, and it often leaves the IRS with well more than 25% of your check.⁶

The exempt amount comes from your standard deduction divided by 52. For 2026, a single filer’s standard deduction is $16,100, producing a weekly exempt amount of roughly $309.62 before adjustments for dependents. Married couples filing jointly get a $32,200 standard deduction, so their base weekly exempt amount is about $619.23.⁷ Full tables sit in IRS Publication 1494.⁸

Because the formula rests on a fixed deduction rather than a percentage of earnings, higher earners can lose a much larger share of pay to a tax levy than to any other kind of garnishment. Someone earning $2,000 a week with a $309 exempt amount surrenders roughly 85% of the paycheck.

Income Creditors Cannot Touch

Some income is off-limits to ordinary creditors. Social Security benefits are protected under federal law.⁹ So are Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ benefits, federal employee retirement, and Railroad Retirement payments.¹⁰ The shield is not total. The federal government can still reach Social Security for unpaid taxes or other federal debts, and state child support enforcement can also garnish it. Regular creditors cannot.

When a creditor serves a garnishment order on your bank, the bank must run a lookback over the previous two months of deposits. Funds traced to protected federal benefit payments during that window stay available to you; the bank cannot freeze them or hand them to the creditor.¹⁰ Money above that protected amount, or money not traceable to federal benefits, is not protected by federal law. Any additional protection comes from your state.

State Law Can Lower the Number

Federal law sets a floor for debtor protection, not a ceiling. When a state law is more protective than the CCPA, employers must apply whichever rule leaves more money in your paycheck.⁵ Many states use a cap lower than 25%, a higher minimum-wage multiplier, or both.

A few states prohibit wage garnishment for consumer debts altogether. In those states, wages can be taken only for obligations like taxes, child support, or student loans. Several other states offer a head-of-household or head-of-family exemption that can shield most or all of your wages if you provide more than half the support for a dependent. Some versions protect 100% of earnings from consumer creditors; others cap the garnishment at 10% of disposable pay. The difference between a 25% cap and a 10% cap can be hundreds of dollars a month, so checking your state’s rule is worth the time.

What Happens When Multiple Garnishments Hit

The 25% CCPA cap applies to the total garnished, not to each individual order. Two consumer creditors cannot each take 25%. Combined, they still cannot exceed 25% of disposable earnings, or the minimum-wage-floor amount, whichever is less.¹

Different types of garnishments stack differently. The CCPA does not set priority among competing orders; state law and other federal rules do that.⁵ In practice, child support and tax levies usually come first. If an existing child support order already takes 50% of your disposable earnings, there is no room left for a consumer garnishment, since 50% already exceeds the 25% cap. Additional amounts can still be taken for taxes or further support obligations, because those categories are not bound by the 25% limit.

You Cannot Be Fired for One Garnishment

Federal law prohibits an employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for any one debt. An employer who willfully violates the rule faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both.¹¹

The protection is limited to a single garnishment. Once orders arrive for two or more separate debts, federal law no longer shields you from termination, though some states extend the protection to multiple garnishments. That is a strong reason to resolve a first debt before a second one lands.

How to Push Back on a Garnishment

You are not required to accept a garnishment as filed. For federal agency debts, including student loans, you are entitled to written notice at least 30 days before garnishment starts, explaining the amount owed, the agency’s intent to garnish, and your right to inspect records, propose a repayment agreement, or request a hearing.¹²

For consumer debts, the creditor generally must first win a court judgment, and you will get notice of the garnishment through the court. Most states let you file a claim of exemption to reduce or stop the withholding. Common grounds include:

Head of household status, in states that recognize it.
Disposable earnings at or below $217.50 per week.
Targeted funds that include Social Security or other protected benefits.
Errors in the judgment amount or the garnishment calculation.

Ignoring a garnishment notice is the worst move. Withholding starts automatically once your employer gets the order, even if the underlying debt is wrong. Filing a timely claim of exemption or requesting a hearing is the only way to stop or reduce it. If your bank account is hit and holds protected federal benefits above the automatically preserved two-month lookback amount, you will need to contact the court or creditor directly to assert your rights to those funds.¹⁰

If You Are Self-Employed

The CCPA caps only apply to earnings, meaning compensation an employer pays for personal services.² Independent contractors and self-employed workers do not have an employer withholding a capped percentage. A creditor with a judgment will typically pursue bank accounts, business assets, or accounts receivable through a levy or asset seizure, and the 25% weekly cap does not apply to those methods. The only federal protection for money in your bank account is the two-month lookback for federal benefit deposits. Beyond that, state exemption laws are the main defense, and they differ significantly.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1672 – Definitions
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 870 Subpart B – Determinations and Interpretations
4
eCFR. 34 CFR Part 34 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
6
Internal Revenue Service. 5.11.5 Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income – Section 5.11.5.4 Exempt Amount
7
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 407 – Assignment of Benefits
10
eCFR. 31 CFR Part 212 – Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge from Employment by Reason of Garnishment
12
eCFR. 29 CFR 20.205 – Notice Requirements