State Wage Garnishment Laws: Limits, Exemptions, and Job Protection

State wage garnishment laws set how much of your paycheck a creditor can take once they have a court judgment against you, and the answer depends heavily on where you live. Federal law caps most consumer-debt garnishment at 25% of your disposable earnings, or the amount by which your weekly disposable pay exceeds $217.50, whichever produces the smaller deduction. A number of states tighten that cap further, and four states effectively prohibit wage garnishment for ordinary consumer debts altogether. Child support, back taxes, and defaulted federal student loans run on separate rules with much higher limits that apply everywhere.

The Federal Floor Every State Starts From

Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act sets the nationwide minimum protection. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1673, the maximum a creditor can withhold from any single paycheck for ordinary debts is the lesser of two amounts: 25% of your disposable earnings for that pay period, or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.¹ Because the federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, the protected weekly floor is $217.50.²

The math in practice. If you earn $200 per week in disposable pay, nothing can be garnished, because your entire paycheck falls below the $217.50 floor. Earn $260, and a creditor can take only $42.50, even though 25% of $260 would be $65. Once your disposable earnings pass roughly $290 per week, the 25% cap starts producing the smaller number and takes over. At $1,000 per week, the garnishment tops out at $250.

Whenever a state law provides greater protection, the state rule controls. That is written directly into the federal statute: the law resulting in the smallest garnishment amount is the one your employer must follow.¹ A state can never allow more than the federal cap, but it can allow less.

What Counts as Disposable Earnings

The garnishment formula runs on “disposable earnings,” not gross pay, and the distinction matters more than most people expect. Disposable earnings are what remains after your employer subtracts deductions required by law: federal, state, and local income taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and any state unemployment insurance contributions.³

Voluntary deductions do not reduce your disposable earnings for garnishment purposes, even if they feel mandatory. Health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, union dues, charitable payroll deductions, and life insurance premiums all stay in the calculation.⁴ Your disposable earnings will almost always be higher than what actually hits your bank account, which means the garnishable amount may be larger than a glance at your pay stub would suggest.

States That Protect More of Your Paycheck

Many states go beyond the federal 25% ceiling. Several cap consumer-debt garnishment at 15% or even 10% of disposable earnings. Others tie their protected floor to the state minimum wage rather than the federal rate. In a state where the minimum wage is $15 an hour, the protected weekly amount would be $450 rather than the federal $217.50. That single adjustment can shield an enormous portion of a lower-wage worker’s paycheck.

Four states offer the strongest protection in the country by effectively banning wage garnishment for ordinary consumer debts: Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In those states, a credit card company, medical debt collector, or personal lender generally cannot garnish your wages at all, even with a court judgment. The prohibition does not extend to child support, alimony, back taxes, or federally backed student loans, which remain garnishable everywhere.

Some states also provide special exemptions tied to family status. Florida, for instance, allows a head of family who provides more than half the support for a child or dependent to claim a full exemption from garnishment on disposable earnings up to $750 per week. Other states have their own versions of household or hardship exemptions. The details vary, but the pattern is the same: local law often protects more of your income than the federal baseline suggests.

Child Support and Alimony Follow Different Rules

Garnishment for child support and alimony operates under a completely different set of limits, and the amounts are much larger. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b), the maximums depend on whether you are currently supporting another spouse or child, and whether you are behind by more than 12 weeks.¹

50% of disposable earnings if you are currently supporting another spouse or dependent child.
60% if you are not supporting another spouse or dependent child.
55% or 65%, respectively, if the support order involves arrears more than 12 weeks overdue.

These percentages apply regardless of which state you live in, including the four states that prohibit consumer-debt garnishment. A parent owing back child support in Texas can still see up to 65% of disposable earnings garnished. Child support withholding also takes priority over consumer-debt garnishments, so if a support order already consumes 50% of your pay, there may be little or nothing left for other creditors to collect.

Tax Levies and Federal Student Loans

The IRS plays by its own rules entirely. A federal tax levy is not subject to the 25% cap that applies to ordinary creditors. Instead, the IRS calculates an exempt amount based on the standard deduction plus allowances for dependents, divided by the number of pay periods in a year.⁵ Everything above that exempt amount can be taken. For a single filer with no dependents, the exempt amount is relatively small, which means the IRS can take a much larger share of your paycheck than any private creditor could. The IRS publishes annual tables in Publication 1494 showing the exact exempt amounts for each filing status and pay frequency.⁶

Defaulted federal student loans can be collected through administrative wage garnishment, which allows the government to take up to 15% of your disposable pay without going to court first.⁷ That is lower than the 25% cap on regular garnishments, but the absence of a court hearing catches many borrowers off guard. The Department of Education has periodically paused involuntary collections during transitions in student loan policy, so borrowers facing this situation should check the current enforcement status.

Income Creditors Cannot Touch

Certain types of income are protected regardless of what a creditor’s judgment says. Federal benefits such as Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans Affairs payments, civil service and federal employee retirement benefits, and railroad retirement payments are all exempt from garnishment by private creditors.⁸ These protections apply even after the money is deposited into your bank account, as long as the funds can be traced to a federal benefit payment.

Private pension and 401(k) funds held in a qualified plan get strong protection under ERISA’s anti-alienation rule, which prohibits assigning or seizing plan benefits to satisfy creditor claims.⁹ A credit card company or debt collector generally cannot force a withdrawal from your employer-sponsored retirement account. The main exceptions are qualified domestic relations orders used to divide retirement assets in a divorce, and certain debts owed to the plan itself. Once you withdraw retirement funds and deposit them into a regular checking account, though, the ERISA shield disappears, and the money is treated like any other bank balance.

Most states add their own list of exempt income sources, commonly including workers’ compensation benefits, disability payments, and state pension funds. These exemptions typically need to be claimed; they are not always applied automatically. If you receive a garnishment notice and believe your income qualifies for protection, you generally need to raise the exemption or risk losing it.

Bank Levies Are a Separate Tool

Wage garnishment and a bank account levy are different collection tools with different timelines. A garnishment is a continuous drip: your employer withholds a set amount from each paycheck until the debt is paid. A bank levy is a one-time freeze. A creditor obtains a court order directing your bank to lock down funds in your account up to the judgment amount, and if no exemption is claimed, the money is eventually turned over to the creditor.

Federal regulations provide an automatic safeguard for bank accounts receiving government benefits. Under 31 CFR Part 212, when a bank receives a garnishment order other than one from the federal government or a child support enforcement agency, it must review the account and calculate a “protected amount” equal to two months’ worth of direct-deposited federal benefits.¹⁰ The bank cannot freeze that protected amount, and you do not need to file paperwork or assert an exemption to access it. The bank is also prohibited from charging a garnishment fee against the protected portion of the account.

The safeguard covers only electronically deposited federal benefits. If you receive paper checks and deposit them manually, or if the funds have been in the account long enough to commingle with other money beyond the two-month lookback window, the automatic protection may not apply. People who rely heavily on federal benefits should keep those funds in a separate account when possible to make tracing easier.

Challenging a Garnishment

Receiving a garnishment notice does not mean you are out of options. Most states allow you to file a claim of exemption arguing that the garnishment leaves you unable to cover basic living expenses. The general process involves completing exemption paperwork, providing evidence of your financial situation such as pay stubs, bank statements, and monthly bills, and submitting everything to the court within a deadline specified in the garnishment notice.

If the creditor does not oppose your claim, the court may grant it without a hearing and reduce or stop the garnishment. If the creditor objects, a judge will schedule a hearing where you carry the burden of proving that the withholding creates genuine hardship. Judges can modify the garnishment amount, delay it, or eliminate it depending on the evidence. The strongest challenges come from people who can show specific, documented shortfalls, which is where receipts and a clear household budget make or break the outcome.

Common grounds for an exemption claim include income below a threshold set by state law, head-of-household status supporting dependents, receipt of protected benefit income, or existing obligations like support payments for other children that leave too little to live on. Deadlines are strict, often 20 to 30 days from the date you receive notice. Missing the window means losing the right to contest that particular order, even if you would have qualified.

When Multiple Garnishments Stack Up

Federal law does not set priority rules for competing garnishment orders. The Consumer Credit Protection Act establishes how much can be taken in total, but which creditor gets paid first is left to state law and the rules of whatever agency initiated the action.⁴

In practice, child support and alimony orders almost always take first priority. If a support order is already consuming 50% of your disposable earnings, a consumer creditor may get nothing, because the combined garnishment cannot exceed the maximum allowed under whichever law applies. Federal tax levies and student loan garnishments also tend to take priority over ordinary creditor garnishments, though the exact stacking order depends on jurisdiction and timing. When multiple garnishments of the same priority exist, employers generally process them in the order received, and a second creditor may have to wait until the first is fully paid before collecting anything.

Job Protection for Garnished Employees

Federal law makes it illegal for your employer to fire you because of a garnishment for a single debt. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1674, no employer may discharge an employee because their earnings have been garnished for any one indebtedness.¹¹ An employer who willfully violates this rule faces a criminal penalty of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both.

The protection has a significant gap. It only covers garnishment for a single debt. Federal law does not prohibit firing an employee who has garnishments for two or more separate debts. Some states close this gap with broader protections that prohibit termination regardless of how many orders pile up, but the federal floor protects only against the first one. If you are dealing with multiple creditors, check whether your state extends protection beyond what federal law requires.

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division enforces these protections, and complaints are handled confidentially; the agency does not disclose your name to the employer during the inquiry.¹² This is a criminal enforcement mechanism, though, not a private lawsuit with guaranteed reinstatement. Workers who want back pay or a return to the job may also need to look at state-law remedies or consult an employment attorney.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
2
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1672 – Definitions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6334 – Property Exempt from Levy
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy
7
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Administrative Wage Garnishment Background
8
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1056 – Form of Distribution
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
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint