Wage Garnishment Take-Home Calculator
Free 2026 wage garnishment take-home calculator: see what a creditor, child support order, student loan, or IRS levy takes and what you keep.
Wage Garnishment Take-Home Calculator
Your paycheck and the order
Enter one paycheck of gross pay, then pick your work state, filing status, and what the garnishment is for.
The protected floor is set per workweek, so it changes with your pay cycle. Compare cycles with the paycheck by pay frequency calculator.
Credit card, medical, and other consumer judgments follow the federal CCPA limit.
15 percent is the statutory ceiling for one federal non-tax order. A borrower can consent in writing to more.
Publication 1494 Table 2 adds a per-box amount for each 65 or older or blind box you and your spouse claim.
The New York exempt floor is keyed to the minimum wage at your work location, not a single statewide figure.
State minimum is $16.90 from January 1, 2026. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. sec. 706.050 uses the local minimum wage at your workplace when that is higher, so raise this if your city sets its own rate.
Use this when a second order hits the same paycheck. Ordinary creditor orders share one 25 percent ceiling instead of stacking.
More detail
Lowers your taxable wages and your deposit, but it is voluntary, so it does not lower disposable earnings. Exclude health premiums here and use the field below.
Subtracted only for student loan and other federal non-tax garnishment, where 31 CFR 285.11 counts it. Never subtracted from CCPA disposable earnings.
Required plans such as CalPERS or a municipal plan are legally required deductions, so they do reduce disposable earnings.
CA SDI, NY PFL and SDI, NJ UI/DI/FLI, and similar levies are legally required. Rates vary by state and year, so enter the amount from your own stub.
Enter your gross pay for one paycheck.
Withholding behind these numbers
Your voluntary deductions shrink the deposit but not the garnishment base, which is why disposable earnings above are higher than your net pay.
A 2026 estimate, not legal advice. State income tax uses a blended effective rate, federal withholding is modeled from the annual brackets rather than your exact W-4, and your employer answers to the order as written. Read the order and the notice that came with it, and talk to a legal aid office or attorney before you act on this number.
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How much of your paycheck a garnishment can take in 2026
Start with the distinction that does the most damage: disposable earnings are not your take-home pay. Disposable earnings are gross pay less legally required deductions only, meaning income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state disability or paid-leave levies, and mandatory retirement. Your 401(k) deferral, HSA contribution, and health premium come out of the deposit but not out of the garnishment base, so the figure a garnishment is measured against is usually larger than the money that reaches your account.
For an ordinary creditor judgment, federal law takes the lesser of two numbers: 25 percent of disposable earnings, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage for the pay period. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, so the protected floor works out like this.
| Pay frequency | Hours protected | Protected floor | 25% takes over above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 30 | $217.50 | $290.00 |
| Biweekly | 60 | $435.00 | $580.00 |
| Semimonthly | 65 | $471.25 | $628.33 |
| Monthly | 130 | $942.50 | $1,256.66 |
Below the floor, nothing can be taken for consumer debt. Between the floor and the breakpoint in the last column, only the excess over the floor is reachable, which is why plenty of garnished paychecks lose far less than 25 percent. Past the breakpoint the flat 25 percent binds, and that 25 percent is an aggregate across every ordinary garnishment you carry, not 25 percent apiece.
Garnishment limits by debt type: creditor, child support, student loan, IRS levy
Creditor judgments (credit card, medical, auto deficiency, old consumer loans) follow the 25 percent and 30x pair above, and only that pair. The floor is the protection that does the work on a small paycheck.
Child support and alimony run on a different ceiling: 50 percent of disposable earnings when you support another spouse or child, 60 percent when you do not, plus 5 percentage points when you are more than 12 weeks behind. The 30x floor does not apply, so a support order can take a paycheck below the level a credit card judgment could never touch. Support is withheld ahead of other wage orders, and what it takes counts against the 25 percent ceiling for anything withheld after it.
Federal student loans and other federal non-tax debt use administrative wage garnishment. One order is capped at 15 percent of disposable pay, and the total is limited so it never breaches the 30x floor and so all federal non-tax orders together stay under 25 percent. The 31 CFR 285.11 definition of disposable pay also subtracts health insurance premiums, which the creditor rule does not, so the two bases differ on the same stub. Collection status for defaulted student loans has changed more than once in 2026, so look up your own account at studentaid.gov before you plan around any of this.
An IRS levy ignores the CCPA entirely. Publication 1494 sets an exempt amount from your filing status, pay frequency, dependents, and 65 or older or blind boxes, and everything above that exempt amount goes to the IRS. The base is take-home pay, not disposable earnings, and there is no percentage cap, so a large paycheck can be cut down to the exempt figure. Miss the three-day deadline for returning the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status and your employer must compute the exemption as married filing separately with zero dependents, the smallest cell in the table at $309.62 a week.
When your state protects more of your paycheck than federal law
Where a state limit is stricter, the lower limit wins. Four states bar wage garnishment for ordinary consumer judgments: Texas (Tex. Const. art. XVI sec. 28), Pennsylvania (42 Pa. C.S. sec. 8127), North Carolina (N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 1-362), and South Carolina (S.C. Code sec. 37-5-104). The carve-outs do a lot of work here. Child support, spousal maintenance, state and federal taxes, and federally guaranteed student loans still reach wages in all four, so a Texas paycheck under a support order is garnished like any other.
Three more states write a formula tighter than the federal pair. California limits an ordinary garnishment to the lesser of 20 percent of weekly disposable earnings or 40 percent of the amount above 48 times the applicable minimum hourly wage, and it uses the local minimum wage at your workplace when that beats the $16.90 state rate (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. sec. 706.050). New York holds an income execution to the lesser of 10 percent of gross or 25 percent of disposable, with nothing withheld while weekly disposable sits under 30 times the local minimum wage (N.Y. CPLR sec. 5231, sec. 5252). Illinois takes the lesser of 15 percent of gross or the amount by which weekly disposable exceeds 45 times the state minimum wage (735 ILCS 5/12-803). Everywhere else the federal rule is the rule, and the calculator tells you that plainly instead of inventing a state limit.
What to do when more than one order hits the same paycheck
Priority decides who gets paid, not arithmetic. An IRS levy already in force and a child support order come first, with support withheld ahead of other wage orders. Federal non-tax debt such as a defaulted student loan comes next. Ordinary creditor orders come last and are satisfied in the order they were served, and they all draw on the same 25 percent ceiling. If a second order arrives and the ceiling is already used up, the second creditor waits.
To check the math on your own stub, work the same sequence your employer does. Add up the legally required deductions to get disposable earnings, apply the cap for the specific debt type, subtract what a higher priority order already took, and compare the remainder against the withholding line on the stub. The paycheck deduction checker verifies the withholding lines that feed disposable earnings, the salary take-home pay calculator by state gives you the baseline paycheck before any order, and the W-4 withholding planner shows how changing your withholding moves the garnishable base, and that one runs backwards from what you would expect: less tax withheld means higher disposable earnings and a larger garnishment.
If you would rather not redo this every payday, the Stub44 Salary Calculator app has child support, IRS levy, and creditor garnishment deduction types built in, so an ongoing order rides along with your saved paycheck profiles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about wage garnishment take-home calculator
How much of my paycheck can be garnished for credit card or medical debt?
Federal law caps an ordinary creditor garnishment at the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable earnings or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. In 2026 that floor is $217.50 a week, $435.00 biweekly, $471.25 semimonthly, and $942.50 monthly, because the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour. If your disposable earnings land at or below the floor, nothing can be taken for that kind of debt. Several states cut the limit further, and four block creditor garnishment outright.
What counts as disposable earnings, and is it the same as my take-home pay?
No, and the gap surprises almost everyone. Disposable earnings are what is left after legally required deductions only: federal income tax, state and local income tax, Social Security, Medicare, state disability or paid-leave levies, and any mandatory retirement contribution. A 401(k) deferral, an HSA contribution, a health premium, life insurance, and union dues are voluntary, so they do not reduce the garnishment base. That makes disposable earnings larger than the amount deposited in your account. You can check each withholding line against your own stub with the paycheck deduction checker.
How much can be garnished for child support?
Up to 50 percent of disposable earnings if you are supporting another spouse or child, or 60 percent if you are not, plus 5 more percentage points when you are over 12 weeks in arrears. That gives limits of 50, 55, 60, or 65 percent. The 30x minimum wage floor does not apply to support withholding, so a support order can legally take a paycheck below $217.50 for the week. Some states cap support withholding lower than the federal ceiling, so check your order and your state child support agency.
How much can the Department of Education take for a defaulted student loan?
A single administrative wage garnishment order is capped at 15 percent of disposable pay, and it is also limited so it never breaches the 30x minimum wage floor and so all federal non-tax orders together stay under 25 percent of disposable pay. Note that the administrative wage garnishment definition of disposable pay in 31 CFR 285.11 also subtracts health insurance premiums, which the ordinary creditor rule does not. Garnishment cannot start until you have been reemployed for 12 continuous months after an involuntary separation. Collection status for federal student loans changes often. Check your own account at studentaid.gov; no static page can tell you whether your loan is actually in collection today.
How does the IRS decide how much of my paycheck to leave me?
An IRS wage levy works from Publication 1494 instead of the CCPA. The table sets an exempt amount from your filing status, pay frequency, dependents, and any 65 or older or blind boxes you claim, and everything above that exempt amount goes to the IRS. The 25 percent cap and the 30x floor do not apply at all. The base is take-home pay, meaning wages less taxes and less the deductions already in effect when the levy was served. If you do not return the Statement of Dependents and Filing Status within three days, your employer must compute the exempt amount as married filing separately with zero dependents, which is the smallest cell in the table at $309.62 a week.
Can my wages be garnished in Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, or South Carolina?
Not for an ordinary consumer judgment such as a credit card or medical bill. Texas (Tex. Const. art. XVI sec. 28), Pennsylvania (42 Pa. C.S. sec. 8127), North Carolina (N.C. Gen. Stat. sec. 1-362), and South Carolina (S.C. Code sec. 37-5-104) all bar it. The ban is narrower than it sounds, though. Child support, spousal maintenance, federal and state taxes, and federally guaranteed student loans still reach your pay in all four states. Set the debt type above to see which rule applies to your order.
Can two creditors garnish my wages at the same time?
Yes, but every ordinary creditor garnishment draws on the same 25 percent ceiling; a second creditor does not get a fresh 25 percent. Orders are generally satisfied in the sequence they were served. Child support is withheld first and counts against that ceiling for anything taken afterward. Enter what has already been withheld this period in the prior withholdings field so the calculator applies the shared cap instead of double counting.
Can I be fired because my wages are garnished?
Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act bars an employer from firing you over garnishment arising from a single debt, no matter how many orders or levies are served on that one debt. The protection does not extend to a second debt, so an employer may legally discharge an employee whose pay is garnished for two separate obligations. Some states add stronger job protection. A willful violation of the federal rule carries a fine, imprisonment, or both.