What Does a Garnishment Look Like on a Pay Stub?

A garnishment appears on a pay stub as a separate line in the deductions column, listed alongside your taxes but flagged as an involuntary withholding you did not authorize. The label varies by payroll system — common ones are “Garnish,” “Wage Garnishment,” “AWG,” “CS,” or “Tax Levy” — and the dollar amount next to it is set by federal caps on your disposable earnings, not on your gross or take-home pay. If your check dropped unexpectedly, that line is almost certainly why.

Where the Line Shows Up and What It’s Called

Look at the deductions side of your earnings statement, usually near the bottom, below your tax withholdings and separated from voluntary items like health insurance or retirement contributions. The exact wording depends on your employer’s payroll software, but a few labels come up repeatedly:

Garnish or Wage Garnishment. The most straightforward label, used for court-ordered consumer debt garnishments such as credit card judgments or medical bills.
AWG. Short for Administrative Wage Garnishment, used when a federal agency orders withholding for debts like defaulted federal student loans or other non-tax federal debts.¹
Child Support or CS. Used for child support or alimony withholding orders.
Tax Levy or IRS Levy. Used when the IRS or a state tax agency is collecting unpaid taxes.
Judgment or Court Order. Generic labels for garnishments resulting from a lawsuit.

The label matters because it tells you which set of rules governs the amount taken. A line marked “AWG” follows the federal 15% student loan cap; a line marked “CS” can go as high as 60%; a “Garnish” line for a credit card judgment follows the 25% consumer-debt cap. If your stub uses a code you don’t recognize, ask payroll what it stands for before assuming anything about the amount.

The Other Details on the Line

Next to the dollar amount, many pay stubs include a case number tied to a specific court filing or agency order. Some also list the creditor by name — a bank, collection agency, or government entity — on the same line. That information lets you match the deduction to a debt you know about and confirm the money is going where it should. If the creditor name doesn’t look familiar, that’s a signal to dig deeper, because it may be a collection agency that bought your debt or, in rare cases, a mistaken identity.

How the Amount Was Calculated

Your employer calculates the garnishment based on your disposable earnings, which is not the same as your gross pay or your take-home pay.² Payroll starts from gross pay and subtracts only the deductions the law requires:

Federal, state, and local income taxes
Your share of Social Security and Medicare
State unemployment insurance tax
State employee retirement contributions required by law

Voluntary deductions stay in the base. Health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, life insurance, union dues, and charitable donations are not subtracted before the garnishment percentage is applied.³ Your disposable earnings will always be higher than what actually lands in your bank account.

Here’s how that plays out. If your gross for the period is $1,000 and required taxes take $200, your disposable earnings are $800. Even if another $150 leaves for health insurance and your 401(k), the garnishment percentage still applies to the full $800, not the $650 you take home.

The Federal Cap for Ordinary Debts

For ordinary consumer debts, the Consumer Credit Protection Act caps the weekly withholding at the smaller of two figures:⁴

25% of disposable earnings for that week, or
The amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which comes to $217.50 per week

Your employer uses whichever produces the smaller deduction. If your weekly disposable earnings are $300, the 25% figure is $75 and the amount above $217.50 is $82.50; your stub shows $75. Below $217.50 a week, nothing can be garnished for ordinary debts. Between $217.50 and $290, only the portion above $217.50 comes out. At $290 or above, the flat 25% applies.² Because the calculation runs every pay period, the number on your stub can move up or down as your hours or overtime change. Many states cap garnishments more tightly than federal law, so your actual deduction may be smaller than the federal formula would produce.

Why Some Stubs Show a Bigger Bite

The 25% cap only applies to ordinary consumer debts. If the line on your stub is for child support, a student loan, or a tax levy, the rules are different — and that’s usually why the number looks larger than you’d expect.

Child Support and Alimony

The federal limit is 50% of disposable earnings if you support another spouse or child, and 60% if you don’t. If payments are more than 12 weeks past due, another 5% can come out on top of that.² These orders often come straight from a state agency without a new court judgment, so long as an underlying support order already exists.

Federal Student Loans

After default, the U.S. Department of Education can order up to 15% of your disposable income withheld through administrative wage garnishment, without a court proceeding. Your stub will usually label this “AWG.” Federal law still guarantees you keep at least $217.50 per week.¹

IRS Tax Levies

IRS levies are the most aggressive. The IRS is not bound by the 25% cap and can take everything above a minimum exempt amount that depends on your filing status and dependents.⁵ When a levy arrives, your employer will give you a Statement of Dependents and Filing Status to complete within three days. If you don’t return it, the exempt amount defaults to married filing separately with zero dependents, which is the smallest protection available.⁶

The Smaller Fee Line Next to It

You may spot a second, smaller deduction near the garnishment itself, often labeled “Garn Fee,” “Admin Fee,” or “Processing Charge.” That’s your employer’s own charge for handling the order — legal review, payroll adjustments, and forwarding payments to the court or creditor. Many jurisdictions let employers pass part of that cost to the employee. This money stays with your employer; it doesn’t go to the creditor. The allowed amount ranges from a few dollars per pay period to a modest flat fee or a small percentage of the garnished amount, depending on where you work. If it looks high, ask payroll to point you to the rule they’re relying on.

What to Do If the Number Looks Wrong

Start with the math. Confirm that only legally required withholdings — taxes, Social Security, Medicare, state unemployment, and mandatory retirement contributions — were subtracted before the garnishment percentage was applied. If voluntary items like health insurance or 401(k) contributions were removed first, your disposable earnings would be understated and the garnishment amount could still be wrong in either direction. Also check that the correct cap was used for the debt type shown on the label.

You generally have the right to request a hearing to challenge a garnishment. The process depends on the debt and the jurisdiction, but common grounds include the debt already being paid, the wrong person being garnished, or the amount exceeding legal limits. For federal student loan garnishments, you can file a financial hardship objection once the garnishment has been in place for at least six months, or sooner if your circumstances changed sharply due to a serious illness, injury, or divorce; you’ll need to document your income and basic living expenses.⁷ For an IRS levy, the single most important step is returning that Statement of Dependents and Filing Status inside the three-day window so the exempt amount doesn’t default to the lowest possible level.⁶ If the deduction is legally correct but you can’t absorb it, a consumer debt or bankruptcy attorney can walk you through state-specific exemptions and any options for negotiating with the creditor.

1
Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Cross-Servicing: For Employers – Administrative Wage Garnishment
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30: Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA)
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Wage Garnishment
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6334 – Property Exempt from Levy
6
Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies
7
eCFR. 34 CFR 34.24 – Claim of Financial Hardship by Debtor Subject to Garnishment