Tools · Wage Garnishment
California Wage Garnishment Calculator (2026)
Enter your disposable pay to see the most a creditor could take in California (20%), the pay that stays protected, and which rule sets the limit.
California wage garnishment calculator
Disposable earnings is your pay after legally required deductions: federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. It is close to your take-home pay, before voluntary deductions like a 401(k) or health premiums.
On these numbers, nothing is garnishable: your pay sits at or below the protected amount, so an ordinary consumer creditor could take $0.
These are the California figures applied to what you entered: a plain summary of the limits, not a determination that any garnishment is correct or incorrect. Court orders set the actual withholding.
- Most a creditor could take
- $0 per paycheck
- Disposable pay entered
- $800 weekly
- California rule
- 20% cap: $0
- Federal ceiling
- 25% / $217.50 floor: $200
Plain-language summary, not legal advice.
Informational only, not legal advice. Garnishment limits carry exceptions this summary cannot weigh (support orders, taxes, student loans, existing court orders), and exemptions often must be claimed by a deadline. See the full rules, the exemption steps, and the citations on the California wage garnishment reference, cited to Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §706.050.
How wage garnishment works in California
On an ordinary consumer judgment a creditor can take the lesser of 20% of your weekly disposable earnings or 40% of the amount your weekly disposable earnings rise above 48 times the minimum wage, so at the 2026 state minimum wage the first $811.20 a week is fully protected.
California tightened this rule effective September 1, 2023. The formula in Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §706.050 is now the lesser of 20% of weekly disposable earnings or 40% of the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 48 times the state (or higher local) minimum hourly wage. The older 25% and 40-times figures no longer apply. For pay periods other than weekly the statute multiplies the hourly minimum wage by set hours: 96 for biweekly, 104 for semimonthly, and 208 for monthly.
This calculator shows the California figures applied to your own pay. It is informational only and not legal advice: support orders, taxes, and student loans follow their own rules, and exemptions often must be claimed by a short deadline. For the full rule, the exemption steps, and the citations, see the California wage garnishment reference, cited to Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §706.050.
Wage garnishment calculators for other states
Same tool, each with its own cap and protected floor.