Iowa Wage Garnishment Calculator
Iowa protects 40 times the federal minimum ($290 a week) on consumer-credit judgments and also caps what any one creditor can take in a calendar year, based on your expected annual earnings.
The annual cap meets a weekly paycheck
An Iowa worker expecting $21,000.00 this year and netting $380.00 a week from a $420.00 check faces a consumer-credit judgment. Each paycheck can be garnished $90.00 (everything above 40 hours of the federal minimum), but that creditor’s total for the calendar year stops at $800.00, the cap for expected earnings of $16,000 to $23,999 — reached in roughly 9 weeks.
Consumer-credit and other judgments
- Annual cap per judgment creditor: $250 if you expect under $12,000; $400 for $12,000–$15,999; $800 for $16,000–$23,999; $1,500 for $24,000–$34,999; $2,000 for $35,000–$49,999; 10% of expected earnings at $50,000 or more.§2
- For judgments that are not from a consumer credit transaction, the federal 30-times floor applies, but the annual caps still limit each creditor.§2
- You can file a verified application asking the court to exempt more of your earnings for the support of you or your family; the hearing is set 5 to 10 days out.§1
- An Iowa employer may not discharge you because your earnings have been garnished — for any number of debts.§2
Section 537.5105
the maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment to enforce payment of a judgment arising from a consumer credit transaction may not exceed the lesser of twenty-five percent … or the amount by which the individual’s disposable earnings for that week exceed forty times the federal minimum hourly wage