Wage Garnishment Calculator
Your pay, your deductions and the legal ceiling
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Planning indicator only. It does not assess every part of a household's finances or replace individualized professional advice.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter the gross pay on one pay stub — everything before any deduction comes out, for a single pay period rather than for the year.
- 02
Put ONLY the legally required deductions in the second box: federal, state and local income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and any mandatory state retirement. Nothing else belongs there.
- 03
Put everything else in the voluntary box — health premium, 401(k), union dues, life insurance, a credit-union transfer. These come out of your check but they do NOT reduce disposable earnings, which is why the page reports two different figures.
- 04
Add your state's own ceiling if it is below the federal 25%, anything already being withheld under an earlier order, and the dependents you would claim. That last field feeds the IRS levy exemption and nothing else.
- 05
Check the pay periods a year — 26 biweekly is the default and it is what turns the $217.50 weekly floor into $435.00 — then read the table underneath. Every order type is computed on your own numbers; find the row that matches your debt and ignore the rest.
Formula
Disposable earnings = gross pay − legally required deductions (income tax, Social Security, Medicare, mandatory state retirement). Voluntary deductions are NOT subtracted. The pay-period floor = 30 × the federal minimum wage × (52 ÷ pay periods a year). At $7.25 that is $217.50 weekly, $435.00 biweekly, $471.25 semi-monthly, $942.50 monthly. Ordinary debt = the LESSER of (25% × disposable earnings) and (disposable earnings − the floor), then the lesser again of that and any state ceiling you enter. The two prongs are equal at floor ÷ (1 − 25%) — $290.00 of weekly disposable earnings, $580.00 on a biweekly stub. Child support = 50% or 60% of disposable earnings, +5 points at twelve weeks of arrears, with NO floor subtracted at any point. Federal student loan = the lesser of 15% of disposable earnings and (disposable earnings − the floor). IRS levy = take-home pay − ((the weekly exempt amount for your filing status + dependents × $101.92) × 52 ÷ pay periods).
Example
A biweekly stub: $2,600 gross, $620 of required deductions, $240 of voluntary ones. Disposable earnings are $1,980 and take-home is $1,740 — $240 apart, and the ceilings are all computed on the larger figure. The floor is 30 × $7.25 × 2 = $435.00. The percentage prong is 25% of $1,980 = $495; the floor prong is $1,980 − $435 = $1,545. The lesser governs, so an ordinary creditor takes $495, leaving $1,245 in the check and costing $12,870 over 26 pay periods. Had you entered take-home instead of disposable earnings the answer would have come out $60 lower, which under-protects rather than over-protects you. The other rows on the same numbers: child support $990 at 50% and $1,188 at 60%, rising to $1,089 and $1,287 with twelve weeks of arrears; a defaulted student loan $297 at 15%; an IRS levy taking $1,121 and leaving the $619.24 exempt amount. Now shrink the check to $500 of gross with $80 of required deductions: disposable earnings are $420, below the $435 floor, so an ordinary creditor and the student-loan order take nothing at all — while child support still takes $210.
Definitions
- Disposable earnings
- Gross pay less deductions required by law only — income tax, Social Security, Medicare and mandatory state retirement. Always at least your take-home pay, and higher for anyone with a single voluntary deduction.
- The 30-hour floor
- 30 × the federal minimum wage, the amount the CCPA protects outright each week. $217.50 at $7.25 an hour, scaled to the pay period. Child support is not subject to it.
- Administrative wage garnishment
- Withholding ordered by a federal agency without a court judgment. Used by the Department of Education on defaulted student loans at 15% of disposable earnings.
- Publication 1494 exempt amount
- The weekly amount an IRS levy must leave you, set by filing status and dependents. 2026: $309.62 single, $464.42 head of household, $619.23 married filing jointly, plus $101.92 each dependent.
- Arrears bump
- The 5 percentage points added to either child-support ceiling once payments are twelve weeks or more behind, taking 50% to 55% and 60% to 65%.
Good to know
Disposable earnings is not your take-home pay
Almost every wrong answer on this subject starts in the same place, and it is worth being precise about it. 29 C.F.R. 870.10 defines disposable earnings as compensation less deductions REQUIRED BY LAW — federal, state and local income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and mandatory state retirement contributions. That is the entire list. Your health insurance premium is not on it. Neither is your 401(k) deferral, your union dues, your life insurance premium, the transfer to your credit union or the parking charge. Those come out of your check, but they do not come out of disposable earnings, because you chose them and the law did not. The consequence is that disposable earnings is always AT LEAST your take-home pay, and higher for anyone with a single voluntary deduction. On a $2,600 biweekly stub with $620 of required deductions and $240 of voluntary ones, disposable earnings is $1,980 while take-home is $1,740 — $240 apart. Now note which direction that error runs. Every ceiling on this page is a percentage of disposable earnings, so someone who plugs in their net pay computes 25% of $1,740 rather than 25% of $1,980 and arrives at a figure $60 too low. They have not been over-cautious; they have UNDER-protected themselves, because they will treat a smaller number as the legal maximum and not question a larger deduction when it appears. Payroll departments compute this correctly as a matter of routine. Employees checking the arithmetic themselves are the ones who get it wrong, and they get it wrong in the direction that costs them.
Two prongs, and the point where they cross
The ordinary ceiling under the Consumer Credit Protection Act is not a percentage. It is the LESSER of two figures, and which one governs depends entirely on how much you earn. The first prong is 25% of disposable earnings. The second is the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage — a wage that has not moved since 24 July 2009, so 30 × $7.25 = $217.50 a week. Scaled to real pay periods that is $435.00 biweekly, $471.25 semi-monthly and $942.50 monthly, and those are the exact figures the Department of Labor publishes rather than approximations of them. On $1,980 of biweekly disposable earnings the prongs are $495 and $1,545, so the percentage governs and $495 is the ceiling. The two prongs are equal at floor ÷ (1 − 25%), which is $290.00 of weekly disposable earnings or $580.00 on a biweekly stub. Above that crossing point the percentage always governs and the floor is irrelevant; below it the floor governs and less is taken than 25% alone would suggest. And below the floor itself, NOTHING may be taken — not a reduced amount, nothing at all. Enter $500 of gross with $80 of required deductions and disposable earnings are $420, under the $435 biweekly floor: an ordinary creditor and a defaulted federal student loan both take zero. This is the part of the rule people never hear, because a creditor has no reason to mention it and a debtor who assumes the worst never checks. It is also why the floor, not the percentage, is what actually protects low-wage workers.
Four rules that are not variations on one formula
The page computes every order type at once rather than asking which debt you have, and that is a deliberate choice: the four ceilings are genuinely different instruments and reading the wrong row gives a badly wrong answer. ORDINARY DEBT — a credit-card judgment, a medical bill, a repossession balance, a landlord's judgment — runs the two-prong test above and takes $495 on our numbers. CHILD SUPPORT runs on 50% of disposable earnings if you support another spouse or child and 60% if you do not, each rising five points once arrears run twelve weeks or more, so 55% and 65%. Crucially it has NO floor. The 30-hour protection does not exist for support at all, which is why an order takes $990 here — twice what an ordinary creditor may take — and why it can still reach a small check that an ordinary creditor could not touch at all. A DEFAULTED FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN takes 15% of disposable earnings — $297 here — under an administrative wage garnishment issued by the Department of Education or its servicer, with no court judgment required at all, after notice and an opportunity for a hearing. The $217.50 floor does apply to it. An IRS LEVY is not a percentage of anything: Publication 1494 gives you a fixed exempt amount from your filing status and dependents and everything above it goes. For 2026 that is $309.62 weekly single, $464.42 head of household and $619.23 married filing jointly, plus $101.92 per dependent, so a biweekly single filer with no dependents keeps $619.24 and loses $1,121. Priority matters as much as the rates. Child support is paid first and consumes the room; two ordinary judgments share ONE 25% ceiling rather than taking 50% between them, and most states pay them in the order the employer received them. A federal levy ignores the queue entirely, because it is not a CCPA garnishment in the first place.
What the federal rule does not do, and what you can do
The CCPA sets a maximum and never a minimum, which means state law can only make it better. Where a state protects more, the state rule governs, and the differences are not marginal. North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas bar wage garnishment for most ordinary consumer debts outright — and none of the four is an exception for child support, federal student loans or federal tax, so a resident of those states can be safe from a credit-card judgment and fully exposed to a support order at the same time. Several states run the identical 30-hour formula against their own higher minimum wage: at $16 an hour the protected floor becomes $480.00 a week rather than $217.50, which puts most low-wage checks entirely out of reach. That is why the state ceiling on this page is one editable field rather than a menu — a hardcoded state figure on a page that looks authoritative is worse than no figure at all, and you should look yours up before treating the federal number as your answer. Two further protections are worth knowing. Under 15 U.S.C. 1674 an employer may not discharge you because your earnings were garnished for any ONE indebtedness, however many separate orders that debt produces, and the Wage and Hour Division enforces it; be honest about the limits, though, since it does not reach a second unrelated debt and does not cover discipline short of firing. And an order is not the end of the process: most states allow a claim of exemption or a hardship motion, filed with the court that issued the writ, usually within a short window measured in days from the notice. Federal benefits — Social Security, VA, SSI — are separately protected and a bank must automatically shield two months' worth of directly deposited benefit funds. The single most useful thing this page can tell you is the figure at the bottom: what is left in the check. That is what the household has to run on, and it is the right input to every decision that follows.
Frequently asked questions
How much of my paycheck can a creditor legally take?
For an ordinary debt — a credit-card judgment, a medical bill, a repossession balance — the Consumer Credit Protection Act caps it at the LESSER of two figures: 25% of your disposable earnings, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. At $7.25 an hour that second figure is $217.50 a week, $435.00 biweekly, $471.25 semi-monthly and $942.50 monthly. On $1,980 of biweekly disposable earnings the two prongs are $495 and $1,545, so the ceiling is $495. Your state may cap it lower, and where it does, the state rule governs.
Why is disposable earnings bigger than my take-home pay?
Because they are not the same measure. Under 29 C.F.R. 870.10 disposable earnings is gross pay less deductions REQUIRED BY LAW — income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory state retirement — and nothing else. Your health premium, your 401(k) deferral, union dues and a life-insurance premium are all voluntary and none of them comes off. On $2,600 of gross with $620 of required deductions and $240 of voluntary ones, disposable earnings is $1,980 while take-home is $1,740. Every ceiling on this page is a share of the larger number, so plugging your net pay in here would under-protect you by $60 a period.
Is child support really allowed to take more than half?
Yes, and this is the rule people find hardest to believe. Child support runs on its own ceilings — 50% of disposable earnings if you support another spouse or child, 60% if you do not, each rising 5 points once arrears run twelve weeks or more, so 55% and 65%. More importantly it has NO $217.50 floor at all. The 30-hour protection that stops an ordinary creditor touching a small paycheck simply does not exist for support, which is why a support order can take half of a check that an ordinary judgment could not touch.
Can they take nothing at all if my paycheck is small?
For ordinary debt and for a defaulted federal student loan, yes — and it is not a reduced amount, it is nothing. If disposable earnings are at or below the floor for your pay period, the second prong of the test is zero and zero is the lesser figure. Enter $500 of gross with $80 of required deductions and disposable earnings are $420, under the $435 biweekly floor: an ordinary creditor and the Department of Education take $0. A child-support order is not bound by that floor and would still take $210.
How is a defaulted student loan different?
Two ways. The rate is 15% of disposable earnings rather than 25%, and the Department of Education does not need to sue you first — administrative wage garnishment is issued by the agency or its servicer without any court judgment, after a notice period and an opportunity for a hearing. The $217.50 floor does apply. The compensation is that it is the one debt on this list you can switch off without paying it: rehabilitation or consolidation ends the garnishment, which no credit-card judgment allows.
How does an IRS levy work — is it also a percentage?
No, and that is the whole difference. A levy is not a garnishment under the CCPA and has no percentage ceiling. Publication 1494 gives you a fixed exempt amount from your filing status and your dependents, and everything above it goes. For 2026 the weekly figures are $309.62 single or married filing separately, $464.42 head of household and $619.23 married filing jointly, plus $101.92 for each dependent. Scaled to a biweekly period with no dependents that is $619.24 exempt — so a $1,740 take-home leaves $1,121 to the levy. It also continues automatically until the liability is paid or released.
If two creditors have judgments, do they each get 25%?
No. Two ordinary judgments share one 25% ceiling; they do not take 50% between them. Most states pay them in the order the employer received the orders, so the second creditor waits. Child support is paid first and consumes the room, which frequently leaves an ordinary creditor nothing at all. The exception is a federal tax levy, which ignores the queue entirely because it is not a CCPA garnishment in the first place.
Can I be fired over a garnishment?
Not for one debt. 15 U.S.C. 1674 makes it unlawful to discharge an employee because their earnings have been garnished for any ONE indebtedness, however many separate orders that single debt produces, and the Wage and Hour Division enforces it. Be honest about the limits: it does not protect you against a second, unrelated debt, and it does not reach discipline short of discharge. But a single garnishment is not a lawful reason to let someone go.
Does my state protect more than the federal rule?
Often. The federal ceiling is a maximum, never a minimum, so a state that permits less permits less and the more protective rule governs. North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas bar wage garnishment for most ordinary consumer debts outright — and none of the four is an exception for child support, federal student loans or federal tax. Several states run the same 30-hour formula on their own higher minimum wage, which lifts the protected floor well above $217.50: a state at $16 an hour protects $480.00 a week. Look yours up and enter it in the state ceiling field.