Tools · Wage Garnishment
Wisconsin Wage Garnishment Calculator (2026)
Enter your disposable pay to see the most a creditor could take in Wisconsin (20%), the pay that stays protected, and which rule sets the limit.
Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin rule is the smaller figure here, so it governs: it protects more of your pay than the federal ceiling would.
These are the Wisconsin 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. Wisconsin also protects a set amount of pay outright, and this calculator cannot pin that floor to one dollar figure. 80% of your disposable earnings is exempt from an earnings garnishment, so a creditor can reach no more than 20%. On top of that, all of your earnings are fully exempt if your household income is below the poverty line, and the garnishment is reduced so it can never push your household income below the poverty line.
- Most a creditor could take
- Up to $160 per paycheck
- Disposable pay entered
- $800 weekly
- Wisconsin rule
- 20% cap: $160
- 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 Wisconsin wage garnishment reference, cited to Wis. Stat. §812.34(2).
How wage garnishment works in Wisconsin
A Wisconsin creditor can take at most 20% of your disposable earnings, because 80% is exempt, and your pay is fully exempt if your household income is below the federal poverty line.
Wisconsin protects more of a low-income paycheck than the federal rule by using a poverty-line test rather than only a minimum wage floor. Wis. Stat. §812.34(2) exempts 80% of disposable earnings, capping garnishment at 20% instead of the federal 25%. It then adds two poverty-line protections: earnings are totally exempt if household income is below the poverty line, and any garnishment is trimmed so it never drops household income below that line. The poverty schedules are set by the judicial conference and updated each July 1. A Wisconsin earnings garnishment also runs on a 13-week cycle, and the debtor can claim the exemption using the notice served with the garnishment.
This calculator shows the Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin wage garnishment reference, cited to Wis. Stat. §812.34(2).
Wage garnishment calculators for other states
Same tool, each with its own cap and protected floor.