How Much Can They Garnish My Wages? The 25% Cap and Exceptions

For ordinary debts like credit cards and medical bills, a creditor can garnish no more than 25% of your disposable earnings each week, or the amount by which those earnings exceed $217.50, whichever is smaller. That federal cap is the answer to how much can they garnish my wages in the most common case, but it does not apply to every debt. Child support, IRS tax levies, and federal student loans each follow their own rules, and several states restrict garnishment further or ban it outright for consumer debt.

The 25% Cap for Ordinary Debts

The Consumer Credit Protection Act sets the ceiling for garnishment on any debt that is not child support, taxes, bankruptcy-related, or a student loan. A creditor gets the lesser of two figures: 25% of your weekly disposable earnings, or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.¹ At the current $7.25 federal minimum wage, the 30-times figure equals $217.50 per week.²

Run the math on your own income and the protection makes more sense. If your weekly disposable earnings are $400, 25% is $100, and $400 minus $217.50 is $182.50. The creditor takes the smaller number: $100. If you earn $290 in disposable earnings, both calculations land on $72.50. Earn less than $217.50 in disposable earnings and no ordinary garnishment is allowed.

The 25% is an aggregate cap, not per-creditor. Three creditors with judgments against you share that 25%; they do not each get a slice.³

What “Disposable Earnings” Actually Means

Disposable earnings are not the same as take-home pay. The CCPA defines earnings as compensation for personal services, including wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, and periodic pension or retirement payments.⁴ Disposable earnings are what remains after your employer withholds amounts required by law: federal, state, and local income taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and any state-mandated retirement contributions.

Voluntary deductions do not lower the garnishable pool. Health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, union dues, and charitable payroll deductions all stay inside disposable earnings. That makes the number the creditor is taking 25% from larger than the amount you actually see hit your bank account.

Bonuses and commissions are fully in play. The Department of Labor treats lump-sum compensation for personal services the same as regular wages, whether it is a discretionary bonus, a performance bonus, a sign-on bonus, or a commission check.³ A big commission in a single pay period gets the same percentage treatment as your ordinary paycheck.

Child Support and Alimony Go Higher

Court-ordered child support and alimony can reach much further into your paycheck than the 25% ordinary cap. If you are currently supporting another spouse or child beyond the one covered by the order, up to 50% of disposable earnings can be garnished. If you are not supporting anyone else, the limit rises to 60%.³

Fall behind by more than 12 weeks and an extra 5% can be added, pushing the ceiling to 55% or 65% depending on your situation.⁵ Support orders also outrank every other garnishment type. If child support already takes 50% of your disposable earnings, an ordinary creditor with a separate judgment gets nothing, because the overall statutory maximum has been hit.

IRS Tax Levies Have No Percentage Cap

The IRS does not need a court order and does not follow the 25% rule. It issues a levy directly to your employer under its own statutory authority. Instead of a flat percentage, the IRS calculates an exempt amount based on your filing status, standard deduction, and number of dependents. Everything above that exempt figure goes to the IRS.⁶ Your employer uses IRS Publication 1494, sent with the levy paperwork, to figure the exempt portion. For many workers, an IRS levy takes noticeably more than an ordinary creditor could.

Before the levy starts, the IRS must send a written Final Notice of Intent to Levy at least 30 days in advance, by certified or registered mail, in person, or left at your home or workplace.⁷ That notice has to explain your right to a Collection Due Process hearing and describe alternatives like an installment agreement. If you never received it, you have grounds to challenge the levy.

Student Loans: Federal vs. Private

Federal student loan collectors have powers that private lenders do not. The Department of Education and guaranty agencies can garnish up to 15% of your disposable pay for defaulted federal loans without ever going to court.⁸ You must get written notice at least 30 days in advance, including the loan amount, the intent to garnish, and your right to request a hearing.

Collection activity on federal student loans has been on and off in recent years. The Department of Education announced a delay of involuntary collection actions, including administrative wage garnishment, tied to broader repayment policy changes.⁹ The status has shifted more than once, so check with your servicer or the Federal Student Aid website for the current timeline if you are in default.

Private student loan lenders have no administrative shortcut. They have to sue, win a judgment, and then use the ordinary garnishment process, which puts them back under the 25%/$217.50 cap that applies to any other consumer debt.

When More Than One Garnishment Hits

If two or more creditors have garnishment orders against you, the total withheld still cannot exceed the CCPA ceiling for the category. For ordinary debts, that ceiling stays at 25% regardless of how many creditors are lined up.³ Employers process orders in the sequence received, and once the cap is reached, later creditors wait.

Child support always jumps to the front of the line, no matter when the order was served. Federal administrative garnishments for non-tax debts, like defaulted student loans, outrank later-served ordinary garnishments but yield to family support.¹⁰ IRS levies run on their own track and can coexist with other garnishments, which is how a paycheck can end up almost entirely consumed. If a support order and a tax levy are hitting at once, this is a moment to get professional help fast.

Income Creditors Cannot Touch

Certain income sources are fully protected from most creditors under federal law:

Social Security retirement and disability benefits
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Veterans compensation, pension, and education benefits
Federal civil service retirement and disability benefits (CSRS and FERS)
Railroad Retirement Board benefits, including unemployment and sickness benefits

These protections are not absolute. The federal government can still reach Social Security for unpaid federal taxes, defaulted federal student loans, and child support or alimony. What the exemption blocks is ordinary creditors: credit card companies, medical debt collectors, and similar judgment holders.¹¹

State Law Can Lower the Number Further

Federal limits are a floor, not a ceiling on debtor protection. When a state law would leave more of your paycheck in your hands, the state law controls.³ State rules take several forms:

Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina prohibit wage garnishment for most or all consumer debts, though support orders, taxes, and student loans can still be collected.
Some states cap ordinary garnishment below 25%, with a few going as low as 10% or 15% for certain debtors.
Several states offer a head-of-household exemption that shields most or all wages of anyone primarily supporting a dependent; qualifying debtors below a weekly income threshold can have ordinary garnishment blocked entirely.
States with a minimum wage above $7.25 sometimes use their own higher rate to calculate the protected floor, which raises the threshold above $217.50.

Two workers earning the same amount can face very different outcomes on the same credit card judgment depending on the state.

How to Stop or Reduce a Garnishment

If your income comes from a protected source, or if the withholding leaves you unable to cover basic living expenses, you can file a claim of exemption with the court that issued the order. The steps are usually: request the exemption form from the court clerk, gather documents showing why the income is protected (benefit award letters, pay stubs, bank statements identifying the deposit source), file the form, and serve the creditor with a copy. Deadlines are short, sometimes as little as five to ten days after you receive the garnishment notice, so speed matters more here than in most legal processes.

Federal administrative garnishments for defaulted student loans have their own hardship process. You show that the withholding leaves you unable to meet basic living expenses by comparing your actual costs against IRS National Standards for a household of your size and income.¹² The burden is on you, and vague claims will not carry it. Bring documentation for every expense.

Bankruptcy is the other route. Filing triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts most collection actions, including wage garnishments.¹³ For credit card, medical, and personal loan garnishments, the withholding stops as soon as the creditor is notified of the filing. In a Chapter 7 case, the underlying debt may be discharged entirely and the garnishment ends for good. The stay does not stop child support or alimony garnishments, which survive bankruptcy. For non-dischargeable debts like some taxes and student loans, the stay is only a pause; the creditor can resume once the case closes.

Can Your Employer Fire You Over a Garnishment

Not for a single debt. The CCPA prohibits your employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for one debt, no matter how many separate withholding orders or collection proceedings that one debt generates.³ An employer who willfully violates that rule faces a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.¹⁴

The protection ends once a second, unrelated debt produces its own garnishment. Federal law only covers the single-debt situation. Some states extend broader protection to employees with multiple garnishments, but under federal law alone, a second order removes the safety net. If you are already being garnished and another creditor is closing in on a judgment, that is worth knowing before the second order reaches payroll.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
2
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1672 – Definitions
5
Administration for Children and Families. Is There a Limit to the Amount of Money That Can Be Taken From My Paycheck for Child Support
6
Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6331 – Levy and Distraint
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1095a – Wage Garnishment Requirement
9
U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education Delays Involuntary Collections Amid Ongoing Student Loan Repayment Improvements
10
eCFR. 45 CFR Part 32 – Administrative Wage Garnishment
11
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Guidelines for Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
12
eCFR. 34 CFR 34.24 – Claim of Financial Hardship by Debtor Subject to Garnishment
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
14
U.S. Department of Labor. The Federal Wage Garnishment Law – Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act