Wage Garnishment Calculator

How the wage garnishment calculator works

Wage garnishment is a court or agency order that forces your employer to send part of your paycheck to a creditor. Four categories cover almost every garnishment in the US: consumer debt (credit cards, medical, personal loans), child support, defaulted federal student loans, and IRS tax levies. Each one uses a different formula, and your state can layer its own protective cap on top.

The calculator first estimates your disposable earnings: gross pay minus federal tax, state tax, Social Security, and Medicare. Then it runs the formula for the debt type you picked, compares it to your state's cap, and shows the lower of the two. A quick example: $1,500 biweekly disposable earnings, consumer debt, in Ohio. Federal CCPA = 25% x $1,500 = $375. Ohio follows federal rules, so the cap stays at $375. That's the most a credit-card creditor can take from that paycheck.

Federal CCPA limits in 2026

The Consumer Credit Protection Act (Title III, 15 U.S.C. Section 1673) sets the federal floor. For most consumer debt, the cap is the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr), which works out to $217.50/week. Anything below that floor is fully protected.

Child support runs on a different scale: 50% of disposable earnings if you're supporting a second family, 60% if not, plus an extra 5% if you're more than 12 weeks behind on payments (so the cap maxes out at 65%). Defaulted federal student loans are capped at 15% of disposable earnings under the Higher Education Act, with the CCPA's 25%/30x rule as a backstop. IRS levies don't use a percentage at all. They look up an exempt amount from Publication 1494 based on your filing status, dependents, and pay frequency, and take everything above it.

State wage garnishment rules that override federal law

States can protect more of your wages than federal law, and several do. California caps consumer-debt garnishment at the lesser of 20% of disposable earnings or the amount above 48 times the state minimum wage. New York caps it at 10% of gross or 25% of disposable, whichever is lower, but never below $510/week. Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina effectively ban consumer-debt garnishment outright (child support, student loans, and IRS levies still apply). Most other states default to the federal CCPA cap.

What to do if your wages are being garnished

First, read the order carefully. It will name the creditor, the amount owed, and the start date. Then check your pay stub against the cap shown here. If your employer is taking more than the legal max, contact your payroll department and the issuing court. You can usually file a claim of exemption (head-of-household, low-income, support of dependents) to reduce or stop the garnishment. For consumer debt, settling with the creditor often beats riding out the garnishment. For IRS levies, requesting a payment plan or proving financial hardship can release the levy. A consumer-rights attorney or your state's legal-aid office can walk you through the exemption forms. Tools like Pay44 can help you project remaining take-home pay so you can plan rent, groceries, and other essentials around the garnishment.

Related calculators

• Hourly Paycheck Calculator to establish gross pay and pay frequency.
• Federal Tax Bracket Calculator to see the federal withholding feeding disposable earnings.
• FICA Tax Calculator for the Social Security and Medicare portion.
• W-4 Withholding Estimator to adjust withholding and change disposable earnings.
• Marginal vs Effective Tax Rate Calculator for understanding effective rate on remaining take-home.
• Pay Period Converter to normalize weekly, biweekly, and monthly figures.