New Mexico Wage Garnishment Calculator
New Mexico protects the greater of 75% of disposable earnings or 40 hours of the highest minimum wage that applies where you work — $480 a week at the $12.00 state rate, more in cities with a higher local minimum.
The 2023 amendments and what they protect
- “Highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate” means the highest federal, state or local rate where the wages were earned, and it applies even if your employer is exempt from paying it — enter your city’s rate if it is higher.§1
- For pay periods other than a week, the Financial Institutions Division of the Regulation and Licensing Department publishes a table of equivalent exemptions; the calculator scales the weekly amount by the federal workweek conversions.§1
- Child-support garnishment is limited to 50% of disposable earnings — lower than the federal 60–65% ceiling — including when garnishment and wage deduction are used together.§1
- Exempt wages stay exempt after they are deposited in a personal bank account, as long as they are reasonably traceable (added in 2023).§1
Forty hours of the highest minimum wage
Exempt from garnishment in all other situations is the greater of the following portions of the defendant’s disposable earnings: (1) seventy-five percent of the defendant’s disposable earnings for any pay period; or (2) an amount each week equal to forty times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate at the place the wages were earned.
An Albuquerque paycheck, and the effect of a city minimum
On a $720.00 weekly check with $90.00 withheld, an Albuquerque worker keeps the greater of 75% of $630.00 or 40 hours at $12.00 ($480.00), so the writ reaches $150.00. Where a city minimum is higher — say a local rate of $15.60 an hour — 40 hours is $624.00, and the same check would lose only $6.00; enter your own city’s rate to apply it.