Guide · by the Garnishment Calc Editorial Team · updated
How wage garnishment is calculated
Every garnishment of an ordinary debt runs through the same four steps: find disposable earnings, apply the federal test, apply the state test, and take the smaller. Here is each step with the numbers for every pay schedule.
Step 1 — Disposable earnings
Federal law defines disposable earnings as what remains of your earnings “after the deduction from those earnings of any amounts required by law to be withheld” (15 U.S.C. § 1672(b)). The Department of Labor lists the usual required deductions as federal, state and local taxes, the employee share of Social Security and Medicare, and state unemployment or disability insurance. Voluntary wage assignments, union dues, health and life insurance, charitable contributions, voluntary retirement contributions and payroll advances are not subtracted (DOL Fact Sheet #30).
Two states widen the definition in your favor: Colorado subtracts employer-withheld health insurance premiums (C.R.S. § 13-54-104(1)(a)), and Maryland exempts medical insurance deductions on top of its other protection (Com. Law § 15-601.1). Federal student-loan garnishment also subtracts health insurance premiums (34 CFR 34.3).
Step 2 — The federal test
15 U.S.C. § 1673(a) caps an ordinary garnishment at the lesser of 25% of weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which they exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. At $7.25 that floor is $217.50 a week. For longer pay periods the Labor Department multiplies by the number of workweeks, counting a month as 4⅓ weeks (29 CFR 870.10), which gives these thresholds:
| Pay period | Nothing garnished at or below | Full 25% applies from |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $217.50 | $290.00 |
| Every two weeks | $435.00 | $580.00 |
| Twice a month | $471.25 | $628.33 |
| Monthly | $942.50 | $1,256.67 |
Between the two columns, only the amount above the floor can be taken; above the second column, the 25% test is smaller and governs. The federal limit is a ceiling for every state — no state order may take more (15 U.S.C. § 1673(c)).
Step 3 — The state test
Federal law lets states be more protective, and most are in at least one way. The patterns that change the number:
- A lower percentage. California 20% (CA), West Virginia and South Dakota 20%, Delaware and Massachusetts 15%, Illinois 15% of gross, Arizona and New York 10% (New York’s is 10% of gross).
- A higher floor tied to a minimum wage. 35 to 60 times the state or federal rate instead of 30 times $7.25 — Washington 35 × $17.13, Connecticut and Virginia 40 × their state rates, Illinois 45 × $15, California 48 × $16.90, Arizona 60 × $15.15.
- A dated dollar floor. Oregon writes its floor into the statute ($400 a week for wages paid July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027); Alaska protects $473 of weekly net pay ($743 for a sole household earner).
- Household tests. Head-of-family rules in Florida, Missouri and Nebraska; per-dependent reductions in North Dakota and South Dakota; a poverty-line test in Wisconsin; annual per-creditor caps in Iowa.
- Bans. Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina do not allow ordinary creditors to garnish wages (details).
Step 4 — Take the smaller, then account for other orders
The employer withholds the smaller of the federal and state results. If another order is already in place, the order of service and the type of debt matter. Federal law counts support withholding against the 25% ordinary-debt ceiling: the Labor Department’s example concludes that “no additional garnishment for the defaulted consumer debt may be made because the amount already garnished is more than the amount (25%) that may be generally garnished.” New York’s income-execution statute and Wisconsin’s garnishment law say the same thing in their own terms, and federal student-loan orders are limited to 25% of disposable pay minus orders with priority (34 CFR 34.20).
Worked example
A worker is paid every two weeks: $2,400.00 gross, $430.00 of taxes and required deductions, so $1,970.00 of disposable earnings. The federal test allows the lesser of 25% ($492.50) and the amount above $435 ($1,535.00): $492.50. The same paycheck in four states:
| Where garnished | State limit | Garnishable | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $139.04 | $139.04 | State rule protects more than federal |
| Illinois | $360.00 | $360.00 | State rule protects more than federal |
| New York | $240.00 | $240.00 | State rule protects more than federal |
| Texas | $0.00 | $0.00 | State law bars wage garnishment for this debt |
Run your own numbers in the calculator, which shows every competing limit and which one wins.
Reading the result panel
The bar under the headline number is your paycheck drawn to scale: the hatched part is taxes and other deductions the law requires, the blue part is what the law protects, and the red part is what may be garnished. Below it, “Limits — smallest applies” lists every test the federal and state law impose for your inputs; the smallest is the one that binds, and the line beneath the headline says whether the state rule or the federal one won. The share button copies a link whose inputs sit after the #, which browsers never send to a server.
What the calculator leaves out
- Creditor judgments: bank-account levies, exemptions a court grants case by case (hardship, “necessary for support”), whether the judgment itself is valid, and timing when another garnishment is already queued ahead of this one.
- Child support: the amount your order actually requires — the federal percentage is a ceiling, not the amount owed — and any lower cap in your state’s support statutes other than Arizona’s.
- Federal student loans: hardship objections, repayment agreements that stop the order, and private student loans, which are ordinary debts collected under state law.
- IRS levies: other IRS collection tools and state tax levies, which follow their own rules. A child-support order entered before the levy is also exempt from it.
What a garnishment cannot do
An employer may not fire you because your earnings have been garnished for any one debt, however many levies that debt produces (DOL Fact Sheet #30). Several states extend this — Iowa to any garnishment, Connecticut until more than seven wage executions in a calendar year.