States With the Strongest Wage Garnishment Protections, Ranked
Wondering how much of your paycheck a creditor can actually take? It depends heavily on your state — from an outright ban in Texas to states that just use the bare federal formula with no extra protection. Find your state below, grouped into four tiers from strongest protection to weakest, across all 20 states we've published full, source-checked garnishment law for. Current as of July 2026.
Methodology
Wage garnishment formulas aren't all the same kind of number — some states set a flat percentage cap, some scale the protected floor to a multiple of minimum wage, and three states ban ordinary-debt garnishment outright. Rather than force those into a single misleading 1-20 ordering, we grouped every state into one of four tiers, from strongest protection to weakest:
- Full ban — ordinary consumer debt (credit cards, medical bills, personal loans) generally can't be garnished from wages at all.
- Meaningfully stricter than the federal formula — a lower percentage cap, a higher minimum-wage multiplier, or an income-scaled floor that shields substantially more than the federal baseline.
- Federal formula, with a minor state-specific add-on — the standard 25%-of-disposable-earnings/30x-minimum-wage federal rule, plus a narrow state exception (a head-of-family carve-out, a per-dependent add-on, or similar).
- Federal formula, no state enhancement — the state hasn't enacted anything beyond the federal baseline.
Within each tier, states are listed in the order shown — not further ranked against each other, since (for example) a 10%-of-gross cap and an 85%-of-gross-protected income floor aren't directly comparable without knowing the actual paycheck involved. Every figure below is sourced to the primary statute cited, and restates what's already published — with full statutory text and additional sourcing — on that state's own law page, linked from each entry. Feel free to cite this ranking with attribution to US Debt Wire.
Full ban on wage garnishment for ordinary debt
- Texas
The Texas Constitution flatly bans garnishing current wages for ordinary consumer debt, with narrow exceptions only for court-ordered child or spousal support.
Tex. Const. Art. XVI, § 28
- Pennsylvania
Wage garnishment for credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and auto loans is barred outright, with no income cap on the protection.
42 Pa. C.S. § 8127
- North Carolina
A private judgment creditor generally can't get a North Carolina court to order wage withholding over ordinary consumer debt at all.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-362
Meaningfully stricter than the federal formula
- Massachusetts
Debtors keep the greater of 85% of gross wages or 50x the state minimum wage per week — about $750/week fully protected at the current state minimum wage.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 246, § 28
- Illinois
Caps garnishment at 15% of gross wages (versus the federal 25%), with a protected floor of about $675/week off the state's $15/hour minimum wage.
735 ILCS 5/12-803
- Washington
Runs its own formula entirely rather than the federal baseline: the greater of 80% of disposable earnings or 35x the state minimum wage, roughly $599.55/week protected.
RCW 6.27.150
- Virginia
Uses a 40x-minimum-wage multiplier instead of the federal formula's 30x, protecting a little over $500/week before garnishment can apply.
Va. Code § 34-29
- Maryland
Most counties exempt the greater of 75% of disposable wages or 30x the state minimum wage (about $450/week) — though four counties fall back to the plainer, less protective federal formula.
Md. Code, Comm. Law § 15-601.1
- Arizona
A 2022 ballot measure cut the cap to the lesser of 10% of disposable weekly earnings or the amount above 60x minimum wage — roughly 90% of most paychecks now shielded.
A.R.S. § 33-1131
- New York
Caps garnishment at the lesser of 10% of gross income or 25% of disposable earnings — the 10%-of-gross figure is usually the smaller, controlling number.
CPLR §§ 5231, 5241
- New Jersey
Caps garnishment at 10% of gross income for households earning below 250% of the federal poverty level; above that threshold, the cap matches the federal 25%.
N.J. Stat. § 2A:17-56
- Wisconsin
Caps ordinary garnishment at 20% of disposable earnings (versus the federal 25%), and fully exempts wages for households at or below the federal poverty line.
Wis. Stat. § 812.34
- California
Caps garnishment at the lesser of 20% of disposable earnings or 40% of earnings above 48x the applicable minimum wage — using the state or local minimum wage, which runs well above the federal floor in many cities.
Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 706.050
Federal formula, with a minor state-specific add-on
- Missouri
Follows the federal 25%/30x-minimum-wage cap, but a Missouri resident who is head of a family and affirmatively claims that status gets a stricter 10% cap instead.
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 525.030
- Florida
A 'head of family' earning $750/week or less is fully exempt from wage garnishment on ordinary debt unless they signed a specific waiver — otherwise, the plain federal formula applies.
Fla. Stat. § 222.11
- Tennessee
Follows the federal 25%/30x-minimum-wage formula, plus a modest $2.50/week additional exemption per dependent child under 16 living at home.
Tenn. Code § 26-2-106
- Georgia
Largely follows the federal 25%/30x-minimum-wage cap; the only state-specific break is a 15% cap on private student loan judgments specifically.
O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5
Federal formula, no state enhancement
- Indiana
Follows the federal formula exactly — the lesser of 25% of disposable weekly earnings or the amount above 30x the federal minimum wage — with no additional state-level cap.
Ind. Code § 24-4.5-5-105
- Michigan
Doesn't set its own percentage cap for ordinary judgment-debt garnishment; state law governs procedure, not the protected amount, which follows the federal formula.
MCL 600.4012
- Ohio
Follows essentially the same limits as federal law, with no stricter state-level cap enacted.
Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.66(A)(13)