Wage garnishment is a court or agency order that requires your employer to withhold part of your paycheck and send it directly to a creditor you owe. For most consumer debts, federal law caps the withholding at 25% of your disposable earnings, but child support, unpaid taxes, and defaulted federal student loans follow their own rules and can take more. What you can do about it depends on the type of debt and how early you act.
How a Creditor Gets to Your Paycheck
For ordinary consumer debts like credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans, a creditor cannot touch your wages until it sues you and wins. The creditor files a complaint, a judge enters a money judgment confirming the debt, and the creditor then asks the court for a separate garnishment order. That order is served on your employer, who is legally required to start withholding and forwarding the specified amount each pay period until the debt is paid or the court releases the order.
Some debts skip the courtroom entirely:
- The IRS can levy your wages without a court judgment. You receive written notice and a chance to request a hearing, but no judge has to sign off.1HelpWithMyBank.gov. Can My Bank Account or Salary Be Garnished Without a Court Proceeding
- The Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of disposable pay for defaulted federal student loans through administrative wage garnishment. Collections on defaulted federal student loans resumed in May 2025 after a multi-year pause.2U.S. Department of Labor. Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
- Child support and alimony withholding is usually built into the original support order, so no separate garnishment lawsuit is needed.
How Much of Your Paycheck Can Be Taken
Every calculation starts with your disposable earnings, which is not the same as take-home pay. Disposable earnings are what’s left after legally required deductions such as federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Voluntary deductions like health insurance premiums and retirement contributions do not come out first.2U.S. Department of Labor. Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
Ordinary Consumer Debts
Under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, weekly garnishment for a consumer debt cannot exceed the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour). That threshold is $217.50 per week. If your disposable earnings are $217.50 or less, none of your wages can be garnished for these debts.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 Restriction on Garnishment
If your disposable earnings fall between $217.50 and $290.00 per week, only the amount above $217.50 can be taken. Above $290.00, the 25% cap becomes the smaller figure and controls.
Child Support and Alimony
Family support obligations have higher ceilings. Up to 50% of disposable earnings can be garnished if you’re supporting another spouse or child, and up to 60% if you’re not. An additional 5% is allowed on top of either cap if your payments are more than 12 weeks in arrears.4U.S. Department of Labor. Employment Law Guide – Wage Garnishment
Unpaid Federal Taxes
The CCPA percentage caps do not apply to IRS wage levies. The IRS uses its own formula based on your filing status, dependents, and the standard deduction to set an exempt amount you keep each pay period. Everything above that exempt amount goes to the government, which often means a larger share of your paycheck than any private creditor could take.5Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies
Your State May Protect More
Federal limits are a floor. If your state law leaves you with more of your paycheck, the state rule controls.2U.S. Department of Labor. Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act A handful of states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina, bar wage garnishment for most consumer debts entirely, allowing it only for obligations like taxes, child support, and student loans. Others set lower percentage caps or offer head-of-household exemptions. Check your state’s rules before assuming the federal numbers apply to you.
Income That’s Protected From Most Creditors
Certain federal benefits are generally off-limits to private creditors. Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ benefits, federal retirement and disability payments, and military annuities are protected from garnishment by ordinary judgment creditors.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can a Debt Collector Take My Federal Benefits, Like Social Security or VA Benefits
The government itself is the exception. The IRS can reach a portion of Social Security for unpaid taxes, and child support orders can also attach to those benefits. The shield is aimed at private creditors, not federal collection.
When More Than One Garnishment Hits at Once
Your employer cannot simply pay each creditor its full amount. The combined withholding still has to fit inside the applicable CCPA cap. Child support takes priority. If a support withholding is already in place, a later creditor gets only what’s left under the cap, which sometimes is nothing.7eCFR. 34 CFR 34.20 – Amount To Be Withheld Under Multiple Garnishment Orders For a federal student loan garnishment arriving after another order, the withholding drops to the lesser of the normal amount or 25% of disposable pay minus whatever is already being taken.
How to Challenge or Stop a Garnishment
You have options, and the earlier you use them the better they work.
Before a judgment is entered, the strongest move is answering the underlying lawsuit. Many garnishments start as default judgments because the debtor never responded to the court summons. Showing up, contesting the debt, or negotiating a payment plan can prevent the garnishment from ever being ordered.8Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can a Debt Collector Take or Garnish My Wages or Benefits
Once withholding has started, you can usually file a claim of exemption with the court that issued the order. Common grounds:
- Your disposable earnings are at or near 30 times the federal minimum wage, meaning the garnishment is taking more than the law allows.
- The money being reached is exempt income like Social Security or veterans’ benefits.
- The amount is miscalculated, often because your employer used the wrong figure for disposable earnings.
- You’ve filed for bankruptcy, which triggers an automatic stay that halts most garnishments immediately.
For IRS levies and federal student loan garnishments, the notice you receive explains how to request a hearing. Collections may pause while the review is pending.
A separate risk to be aware of: even after a judgment, a creditor can also pursue funds already sitting in your bank account through a bank levy, which is a different court order with different mechanics from wage garnishment.
Your Job Is Protected, With a Catch
Federal law bars your employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for a single debt, no matter how many legal proceedings that one creditor files. A willful violation exposes the employer to a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year of imprisonment, or both.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 Restriction on Discharge From Employment by Reason of Garnishment
The catch: the federal shield covers garnishment for one debt. If two or more separate debts are being collected against your wages, the CCPA no longer prevents termination. Some states go further and prohibit firing regardless of how many garnishments you have, so state law may close the gap.
Garnished Wages Are Still Taxable Income
This one catches people off guard. The IRS treats your full gross pay as income, including the portion diverted to a garnishment. Your W-2 shows total earnings before the withholding, and you owe income tax on the whole amount. Garnishment is not a deduction and does not reduce what you owe at filing time. The dollars leave your paycheck before you ever see them, but for tax purposes they are still yours.