Your paycheck arrives short, and the stub shows a new deduction you never agreed to: a garnishment. It usually means a creditor sued you, won a judgment, and got a court order requiring your employer to send part of your wages straight to them. It feels like there’s nothing you can do. In fact, federal law draws hard lines around how much they can take, and some money is off limits entirely.
The rules come mainly from Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, a federal law enforced by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. It applies in every state, to every employer, and states are free to protect more of your pay, but never less.
The federal cap: 25 percent, and often less
For ordinary consumer debts such as credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans, federal law limits garnishment to the lesser of two amounts, according to the Labor Department’s Fact Sheet #30: 25 percent of your disposable earnings for the week, or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which works out to $217.50 a week.
Run the numbers and the floor becomes clear. If your weekly disposable earnings are $217.50 or less, nothing can be garnished for a consumer debt. Between $217.50 and $290, only the amount above $217.50 can be taken. At $290 or more, the 25 percent cap applies. These limits hold no matter how many judgment creditors line up; they share the same capped slice, not a slice each.
“Disposable earnings” has a specific meaning here: your pay after legally required deductions like federal, state, and local taxes and Social Security. Voluntary deductions such as health insurance premiums, union dues, or 401(k) contributions do not reduce the earnings a creditor can reach.
The debts that break the 25 percent ceiling
Three categories of debt play by tougher rules. Child support and alimony top the list: under the same law, up to 50 percent of disposable earnings can be withheld if you are supporting another spouse or child, and up to 60 percent if you are not, with an extra 5 percent allowed when payments are more than 12 weeks behind. Details are in the Labor Department’s wage garnishment guidance.
Defaulted federal student loans are second. The Department of Education and guaranty agencies can use administrative wage garnishment, taking up to 15 percent of disposable pay without ever going to court, a process described at StudentAid.gov. Unpaid federal taxes are third: the IRS levies wages under its own formula, which exempts an amount based on your filing status and dependents rather than using the 25 percent cap.
Social Security is largely untouchable
Here is the protection many retirees don’t know they have. Ordinary commercial creditors, including credit card companies, hospitals, and debt buyers, generally cannot garnish Social Security, VA, SSI, or other federal benefits, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains. The major exceptions are federal obligations: child support and alimony, federal taxes, defaulted federal student loans, and other debts to the federal government. SSI is protected even from those.
The protection follows the money into your bank account, with a catch. Under a Treasury Department rule, 31 CFR Part 212, a bank that receives a garnishment order must review the last two months of the account’s history and automatically shield an amount equal to the federal benefits directly deposited in that window. If $1,200 in Social Security lands in your account each month, roughly $2,400 stays usable no matter what the order says. The catch: the automatic protection only works for direct deposit. If you deposit paper benefit checks yourself, the account can be frozen and you’ll have to prove in court that the money is exempt.
Your job is protected, once
The same federal law makes it illegal for your employer to fire you because your wages are garnished for any single debt. That protection does not extend to a second, separate garnishment, so a pileup of judgments carries real workplace risk. Complaints about employer violations go to the Wage and Hour Division, which enforces the CCPA nationwide.
What to do the day a garnishment starts
Read the paperwork. You should have received notice of the lawsuit and the judgment. If the first you learned of any of it was your shrunken paycheck, you may be able to ask the court to reopen the case, especially if you were never properly served.
Check the math. Compare the withholding against the federal limits above and your state’s rules. Some states cap garnishment below 25 percent or exempt heads of household entirely.
Claim your exemptions. Most states give you a window to file an exemption claim with the court if protected funds, like Social Security, were seized from a bank account.
Consider the underlying debt. A garnishment runs until the judgment, plus interest, is paid. Negotiating a settlement or payment plan with the creditor can sometimes stop the drain faster than waiting it out. Free or low-cost help is often available through legal aid; garnishment defense is one of the most common services they handle.
Garnishment is designed to collect a debt, not to leave you unable to eat. Knowing exactly where the legal lines sit is the difference between losing a quarter of your paycheck and losing only what the law actually allows.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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