California: Wage Garnishment Limits

The short answer

If an ordinary creditor — a credit card company, a hospital, a personal-loan
lender — wins a lawsuit against you in California and gets a money judgment,
it can garnish your paycheck, but only up to a limit. California's limit is
narrower than the federal minimum: an employer can withhold no more than the
lesser of 20% of your weekly disposable earnings, or 40% of the amount your
earnings exceed 48 times the minimum wage that applies where you work. On
top of that formula, you can ask a court to protect even more of your
paycheck if you can show you need it to support yourself or your family.
Child support, spousal support, and tax debts follow different, usually
higher, limits set elsewhere.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

California's wage garnishment rules live in the Wage Garnishment Law, Code
of Civil Procedure §§ 706.010–706.154. The garnishment cap itself is set by
CCP § 706.050. A separate law, Labor Code § 2929, protects an employee from
being fired over a garnishment.

Maximum that can be garnished

Under CCP § 706.050(a), the most that can be withheld from your paycheck in
any workweek is the lesser of two numbers: 20% of your disposable earnings
for that week, or 40% of the amount your disposable earnings exceed 48
times the minimum hourly wage. "Disposable earnings" means what's left
after legally required deductions like taxes — not your gross pay.

State rule vs. federal floor

Federal law (15 U.S.C. § 1673(a)) sets a floor that applies nationwide
unless a state is more protective: the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings,
or the amount earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. California
beats the federal floor on both parts of that formula — a lower percentage
(20% vs. 25%) and a bigger protected cushion (48 times minimum wage instead
of 30 times) — so less of a California paycheck can be taken than federal
law alone would allow.

Minimum-wage protected floor

The 48-times multiplier in § 706.050(a)(2) uses the state minimum hourly
wage in effect when the earnings are paid — or the local minimum wage
instead, if the city or county where you work sets a higher one. Because
many California cities set their own higher minimum wage, the actual
dollar floor that's fully protected varies by where you work, not just by
state law alone.

Support, tax & student loan debts

A different set of rules applies once the debt isn't an ordinary judgment.
A withholding order for child or spousal support automatically outranks
every other garnishment order (CCP § 706.030) and can reach the higher
percentages federal law allows for support — up to 50-65% of disposable
earnings, depending on whether you're supporting another dependent and
whether the support is in arrears. An unpaid state tax debt is collected
through its own earnings withholding order under CCP §§ 706.070 and
following, on a separate track from an ordinary judgment. Federal tax
levies and federal student loan collections don't go through this state
chapter at all — they're handled through federal administrative processes.

Head-of-household/family exemption

California doesn't use a fixed dollar cutoff like some states do. Instead,
CCP § 706.051 lets you ask a court to exempt whatever portion of your
earnings you can prove is "necessary for the support of the judgment
debtor or the judgment debtor's family supported in whole or in part by
the judgment debtor." It's a case-by-case showing, not an automatic rule —
but it isn't available if the underlying debt is a support order, a state
tax order, family-code attorney's fees, or wages you owe to your own
former employee (§ 706.051(c)).

Multiple garnishments at once

If more than one earnings withholding order is served on your employer at
the same time, California uses strict first-in-time priority: the employer
follows the first order served, and later ordinary orders are simply
ineffective until the earlier one is satisfied (CCP § 706.023(a)-(c)). The
main exceptions are a support order, which always jumps to the front of
the line, and an order for elder or dependent-adult financial abuse, which
outranks every ordinary order but still yields to a support or tax order.

Protection from being fired

Labor Code § 2929 makes it illegal to fire you because your wages have
been threatened with garnishment, or because they've been garnished for a
single judgment. It goes further than the federal anti-retaliation rule
(15 U.S.C. § 1674) by voiding any employment contract clause that offers
weaker protection, and by entitling a wrongfully discharged employee to up
to 30 days of back wages.

What trips people up

The 20%/40% formula isn't "pick whichever is bigger" — it's the LESSER of
the two amounts, so the number that actually protects you the most is the
one that controls. And the § 706.051 family-support exemption isn't
automatic: you have to file a claim of exemption and, if the creditor
objects, prove your need at a hearing. Simply having dependents doesn't
protect your paycheck by itself. Finally, remember California's cap only
applies to earnings — self-employed income paid to you as an independent
contractor isn't reached by this wage garnishment chapter at all, though a
creditor can pursue it through a different collection tool.

Common questions

Can a creditor garnish more than 20% if I have a lot of debt?
No — for an ordinary judgment, 20% (or the 40%-over-48x-minimum-wage
alternative, if lower) is the ceiling no matter how large the debt or how
many ordinary creditors are in line, though a support order can add on top
of that.

Does it matter how often I'm paid?
No — CCP § 706.050(b) sets equivalent multipliers for biweekly,
semimonthly, and monthly pay periods so the protection works out the same
either way.

What if I'm already behind on child support and a credit card company
also gets a judgment against me?
The support order comes first and can take up to 50-65% of your disposable
earnings; only what's left after that is available for the credit card
judgment, subject to the ordinary 20%/40% cap.

Statutes and sources

• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.050 — "Except as otherwise provided in this
  chapter, the maximum amount of disposable earnings of an individual
  judgment debtor for any workweek that is subject to levy under an
  earnings withholding order shall not exceed the lesser of the following:
  (1) Twenty percent of the individual's disposable earnings for that
  week. (2) Forty percent of the amount by which the individual's
  disposable earnings for that week exceed 48 times the state minimum
  hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable. If a
  judgment debtor works in a location where the local minimum hourly wage
  is greater than the state minimum hourly wage, the local minimum hourly
  wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable shall be used for
  the calculation made pursuant to this paragraph." —
  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=706.050.&lawCode=CCP
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.051 — "Except as provided in subdivision (c),
  the portion of the judgment debtor's earnings that the judgment debtor
  proves is necessary for the support of the judgment debtor or the
  judgment debtor's family supported in whole or in part by the judgment
  debtor is exempt from levy under this chapter." —
  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=706.051.&lawCode=CCP
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.030 — "A withholding order for support has
  priority over any other earnings withholding order. An employer upon
  whom a withholding order for support is served shall withhold and pay
  over earnings of the employee pursuant to that order notwithstanding the
  requirements of another earnings withholding order." —
  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=706.030.&lawCode=CCP
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.023 — "(a) An employer shall comply with the
  first earnings withholding order served upon the employer. ... (c) If an
  earnings withholding order is served while an employer is required to
  comply with another earnings withholding order with respect to the
  earnings of the same employee, the subsequent order is ineffective and
  the employer shall not withhold earnings pursuant to the subsequent
  order, except as provided in subdivision (d)." —
  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=706.023.&lawCode=CCP
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• Cal. Lab. Code § 2929 — "No employer may discharge any employee by
  reason of the fact that the garnishment of his wages has been
  threatened. No employer may discharge any employee by reason of the fact
  that his wages have been subjected to garnishment for the payment of one
  judgment. A provision of a contract of employment that provides an
  employee with less protection than is provided by this subdivision is
  against public policy and void." —
  https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2929.&lawCode=LAB
  (accessed 2026-07-05)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1673 — "Except as provided in subsection (b) and in section
  1675 of this title, the maximum part of the aggregate disposable
  earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to
  garnishment may not exceed (1) 25 per centum of his disposable earnings
  for that week, or (2) the amount by which his disposable earnings for
  that week exceed thirty times the Federal minimum hourly wage prescribed
  by section 206(a)(1) of title 29 in effect at the time the earnings are
  payable, whichever is less." —
  https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1673
  (accessed 2026-07-05)