Money & Debt · Wage Garnishment
Wage Garnishment Laws by State
The most-searched fact when your paycheck is on the line: how much a creditor can take, and the pay the law protects. For every state, with the exemption and the exact statute.
Read this first — the number is a ceiling, and some states go further
Federal law sets the nationwide ceiling for an ordinary consumer debt: a creditor may take the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly pay tops 30× the federal minimum wage ($217.50). No state can let a creditor take more than that. Many states simply follow the federal limit (3 here), and a handful protect you further with a lower cap or a larger exemption (9 here).
The pattern breaks entirely in a few states. Texas, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina bar garnishing wages for ordinary consumer debt at all (3 of the states here) — but that does not mean a paycheck is untouchable, because child support, taxes, and defaulted federal student loans can still reach it. Each page shows which rule your state follows, and what you can do right now if a garnishment has already started.
Pick your state
The cap, the protected pay, and the statute on each card.
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What these pages are — and aren't
Each state page is a reference for the garnishment limit, the pay that is protected, and the neutral steps you can take if you are being garnished. They are deliberately not legal advice for your specific case: exemption deadlines are short and court procedure is local, so each page links to the official statute and, where available, a free legal-aid resource. This is legal information, not legal advice.