Methodology

Order of operations for a creditor judgment

1. Disposable earnings = gross pay for the period minus the taxes and other deductions required by law that you enter. Colorado subtracts withheld health insurance too, and Maryland exempts it on top of its other protection; the engine does both when you enter a premium.
2. Pay-period length in workweeks: weekly 1, every two weeks 2, twice a month 2⅙, monthly 4⅓ — the conversions in 29 CFR 870.10 and DOL Fact Sheet #30. Where a state writes its own conversion, the engine uses it instead: Alaska divides monthly pay by 4.3 and semimonthly pay by 2.17; Oregon publishes a separate dollar floor for each pay period.
3. Federal limit = the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above 30 × $7.25 × workweeks.
4. State limit = the state statute’s own test, written as a separate function for each of the 51 jurisdictions. Each function returns every competing amount (for example California’s 20% and its 40%-of-excess test), so the result panel can show all of them.
5. Result = the smaller of the federal and state limits, after subtracting anything you tell us is already withheld under an earlier garnishment or support order from the federal 25% ceiling.

Other modes

Support: 50% or 60% of disposable earnings, plus five points for arrears more than 12 weeks old; Arizona’s one-half cap is applied when Arizona is selected. Student loans: disposable pay also subtracts health insurance; the order is the lesser of 15% or the amount above 30 × $7.25 × workweeks, and no more than 25% minus earlier orders. IRS levy: take-home pay minus the Publication 1494 exempt amount for the filing status, dependents and 65/blind boxes you enter, or minus the exempt amount on your notice if you provide it.

Minimum wages and dates

Fourteen jurisdictions tie their floor to a state or regional minimum wage. Each rate is stored with the dates it applies, from the state labor department where we could read it and otherwise from the U.S. Department of Labor’s state table updated July 1, 2026. The calculator reads the pay date you enter (today by default). When a date falls after the last rate we have verified — for example January 2027 in a state that had not yet announced its 2027 rate — the engine refuses to guess and asks for the official figure, explaining why. An automated test fails 45 days before any stored rate runs out without a verified successor, so we have to update it before visitors reach that date.

Rounding

Amounts are computed in full precision and rounded to the cent only for display. Per-dependent IRS amounts are added exactly as Publication 1494 prints them, so our figures match the publication’s own examples to the cent.

Testing

Every state and DC has at least one unit test whose expected answer is worked out by hand from the statute and written in the test file beside the citation. A browser test loads every state page, enters a paycheck and checks the displayed result against that state’s expected figure. A duplication check compares every page with every other so that state pages differ because their law differs, not because of filler.

Known limits

Hardship reductions, “necessary for support” claims and other exemptions that a court grants case by case are explained but not computed. Nevada measures gross weekly pay from year-to-date earnings; we approximate it from the paycheck you enter. Maine adds certain exempt income to the base of its tests, which we do not collect. Iowa’s annual per-creditor cap is shown alongside the per-check figure rather than tracked across the year. Figures were last verified on October 5, 2026.