Tools · Wage Garnishment
New Jersey Wage Garnishment Calculator (2026)
Enter your disposable pay to see the most a creditor could take in New Jersey (10%), the pay that stays protected, and which rule sets the limit.
New Jersey 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.
The New Jersey rule is the smaller figure here, so it governs: it protects more of your pay than the federal ceiling would.
These are the New Jersey 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.
The figure above is the most the percentage caps allow. New Jersey also protects a set amount of pay outright, and this calculator cannot pin that floor to one dollar figure. The federal floor still protects weekly disposable pay up to $217.50 (30 times the $7.25 federal minimum wage), and New Jersey adds its own protection: $48 a week of pay is always exempt from wage execution no matter what you earn.
- Most a creditor could take
- Up to $80 per paycheck
- Disposable pay entered
- $800 weekly
- New Jersey rule
- 10% cap: $80
- 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 New Jersey wage garnishment reference, cited to N.J.S.A. 2A:17-50, 2A:17-56.
How wage garnishment works in New Jersey
Most lower-income workers in New Jersey have their paycheck garnishment capped at 10% of income, because a creditor can take no more than 10% if your income is at or below 250% of the federal poverty level; only when you earn more than that can garnishment rise toward the federal ceiling of 25%.
New Jersey uses an income-based sliding scale rather than one flat percentage. If your income does not exceed 250% of the federal poverty level for your household size, a creditor may take no more than 10% of your income. If your income is above 250% of the poverty level, garnishment can go up to the federal maximum, which is the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable pay exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage. Within these caps a court sets the exact percentage in the wage execution order, so the amount taken is decided case by case, not fixed by statute. The federal poverty level is updated each year, so the income line that separates the 10% track from the 25% track moves over time.
This calculator shows the New Jersey 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 New Jersey wage garnishment reference, cited to N.J.S.A. 2A:17-50, 2A:17-56.
Wage garnishment calculators for other states
Same tool, each with its own cap and protected floor.