District of Columbia: Wage Garnishment Limits

The short answer

If an ordinary creditor wins a lawsuit against you in the District of
Columbia and gets a money judgment, it can garnish your paycheck, but D.C.
protects a large slice of it. Nothing at all can be taken if your disposable
wages that week are at or below 40 times the applicable minimum hourly wage.
Above that floor, the creditor can only take 25% of the amount you earn over
the floor — not 25% of your whole paycheck. You can also ask a court to
protect even more if paying would cause you undue financial hardship, and if
you're on public assistance, the law presumes hardship for you
automatically. Support judgments and tax withholding orders follow different,
usually higher, rules.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

D.C.'s wage garnishment rules sit in D.C. Code §§ 16-571 through 16-584. The
cap and priority rule are in § 16-572, the matching employer withholding duty
in § 16-573, the hardship-exemption procedure in § 16-572.01, and the
anti-discharge protection in § 16-584. The current version of § 16-572
reflects the 2018 Wage Garnishment Fairness Amendment Act (D.C. Law 22-296),
which replaced an earlier version of the statute that simply restated the
federal formula.

Maximum that can be garnished

Under § 16-572(1)(A), the amount subject to attachment is 25% of the amount
by which the debtor's disposable wages for the week exceed 40 times the
applicable minimum hourly wage. This is a different shape than the common
"lesser of 25% of earnings, or the amount over a minimum-wage floor"
formula: D.C. only exposes 25% of the excess above the floor to garnishment,
not up to the full excess. Section 16-573(d) confirms the floor is a
complete bar below it — the employer withholds nothing at all if disposable
wages don't exceed 40 times the minimum hourly wage that week.

State rule vs. federal floor

Federal law (15 U.S.C. § 1673(a)) caps ordinary garnishment at the lesser of
25% of disposable earnings, or the amount earnings exceed 30 times the
federal minimum hourly wage. D.C.'s rule beats that on both fronts: it uses
a bigger multiplier for the protected floor (40x instead of 30x) and, above
that floor, only exposes 25% of the excess rather than potentially all of
it, so less of a D.C. paycheck can be taken than federal law alone would
allow.

Minimum-wage protected floor

The 40-times multiplier in § 16-572(1)(A) is pegged to "the minimum hourly
wage, as prescribed in § 32-1003," in effect when the wages are paid — the
District's own minimum wage, not the (typically lower) federal minimum wage.

Support, tax & student loan debts

Support judgments don't follow § 16-572's percentage formula at all. Instead,
§ 16-577 caps them at 50% of gross wages (not disposable wages) for the pay
periods ending in the month, and lets a court give a support judgment
priority over any other execution. A formal child-support withholding order
issued under the District's Title 46 child-support-enforcement chapter goes
further: it outranks every other legal process against the same wages and
instead follows the federal CCPA support cap (up to 50-65% of disposable
earnings, 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b)). Federal tax levies and federal student loan
wage garnishment are handled through separate federal administrative
processes and don't run through this D.C. Code chapter at all.

Head-of-household/family exemption

D.C. doesn't use a fixed dollar head-of-household exemption. Instead,
§ 16-572.01 lets a judgment debtor file a motion asking the Superior Court
to exempt additional wages on a showing of undue financial hardship. The
court must hold a hearing within 30 days of the motion, and if the debtor
receives public assistance from one of several listed programs (TANF, SSI,
Medicaid, and others), the law presumes hardship for them automatically
rather than requiring proof from scratch.

Multiple garnishments at once

Only one attachment on a debtor's wages can be paid at a time (§ 16-572(3)).
Where more than one is issued against the same employer, whichever was
first delivered to the marshal has priority, and later attachments wait
their turn in that same order (§§ 16-572(4), 16-507(b)).

Protection from being fired

§ 16-584 makes it illegal to fire an employee because a creditor has
garnished, or tried to garnish, wages to pay a judgment. Unlike the federal
rule (15 U.S.C. § 1674), which only protects against discharge for a single
garnishment, D.C.'s statute carries no such limit in its own text.

What trips people up

The 40x floor in § 16-572 is a hard bar, not a starting point for a
percentage calculation on your whole check — if your disposable wages don't
clear it, nothing can be withheld that week at all, per § 16-573(d). Also,
an attachment doesn't survive a job change automatically: § 16-576 says
that if you resign or are fired while an attachment is unpaid, it lapses,
and the creditor has to start over unless you're reinstated or rehired
within 90 days. Finally, the § 16-572.01 hardship exemption isn't automatic
just because you're struggling financially outside the listed
public-assistance categories — you still have to file the motion and make
your case at a hearing.

Common questions

Does D.C. use the federal 25%/30x formula?
No. It replaced that formula in 2018 with its own: 25% of the amount above
a 40x-minimum-wage floor, rather than the lesser of 25% of earnings or the
amount above a 30x floor.

Can I stop a garnishment just by proving I need the money?
Not automatically — you have to file a motion under § 16-572.01 and get a
hearing, though the process is easier if you already receive qualifying
public assistance.

What happens if two creditors both try to garnish my wages at once?
Only one attachment gets paid at a time; the one delivered to the marshal
first is satisfied before any later one, unless the later order is a
support judgment, which a court can move to the front of the line.

Statutes and sources

• D.C. Code § 16-572 — "Notwithstanding any other provision of subchapter
  II of this chapter: (1)(A) Where an attachment is levied upon wages due a
  judgment debtor from an employer-garnishee, the attachment shall become a
  lien and a continuing levy upon the gross wages due or to become due to
  the judgment debtor for the amount specified in the attachment to the
  extent of 25% of the amount by which the judgment debtor's disposable
  wages for that week exceed 40 times the minimum hourly wage, as
  prescribed in § 32-1003 ("minimum hourly wage"), in effect at the time the
  wages are payable. ... (3) Only one attachment upon the wages of a
  judgment debtor may be satisfied at one time. (4) Where more than one
  attachment is issued upon the wages of the same judgment debtor and
  served upon the same employer-garnishee, the attachment first delivered
  to the marshal shall have priority, and all subsequent attachments shall
  be satisfied in the order of priority set forth in § 16-507." —
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-572
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-572.01 — "(a) Notwithstanding § 16-572, a judgment debtor
  may seek to exempt additional wages from attachment under § 16-572 by
  making a claim of undue financial hardship by filing a motion with the
  Superior Court of the District of Columbia ("court"). ... (d)(1) At the
  hearing on a motion filed pursuant to this section, the court shall
  determine whether the amount required to be paid to the judgment creditor
  as calculated pursuant to § 16-572 creates an undue financial hardship for
  the judgment debtor; provided, that, for a movant who indicates that he or
  she receives public assistance from any of the sources listed in
  subsection (c)(1) of this section, there shall be a presumption that the
  amount required to be paid to the judgment creditor as calculated
  pursuant to § 16-572 creates an undue financial hardship." —
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/[16-572.01]
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-573 — "(d) Under this section, except as provided in
  § 16-577, the employer-garnishee shall not withhold from the judgment
  debtor or pay to the judgment creditor any portion of the gross wages
  payable to the judgment debtor for any week in which the judgment
  debtor's disposable wages do not exceed 40 times the minimum hourly wage,
  as prescribed in § 32-1003, in effect at the time the wages are payable."
  — https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-573
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-577 — "The per centum limitations prescribed by section
  16-572 do not apply in the case of execution upon a judgment, order, or
  decree of any court of the District of Columbia for the payment of any
  sum for the support or maintenance of a person's spouse or former spouse,
  domestic partner or former domestic partner, or children, and any such
  execution, judgment, order, or decree shall, in the discretion of the
  court, have priority over any other execution which is subject to the
  provisions of this subchapter. In the case of execution upon such a
  judgment, order, or decree for the payment of such sum for support or
  maintenance, the limitation shall be 50 per centum of the gross wages due
  or to become due to any such person for the pay period or periods ending
  in any calendar month, except that a notice or order to withhold issued
  pursuant to subchapter I of Chapter 2 of Title 46 shall have priority over
  any other legal process and shall be subject to the limitations stated in
  section 303(b) of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, approved May 29,
  1968 (82 Stat. 163; 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b))." —
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-577
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-507 — "(b) An attachment shall be a lien on the property
  attached from the date of its delivery to the marshal. When different
  persons obtain attachments against the same defendant the priorities of
  the liens of the attachments shall be according to the dates when they
  were so delivered to the marshal." —
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-507
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-576 — "If a judgment debtor resigns or is dismissed from
  his employment while an attachment upon his wages is wholly or partly
  unsatisfied, the attachment shall lapse and no further deduction may be
  made thereon unless the judgment debtor is reinstated or reemployed
  within 90 days after the resignation or dismissal." —
  https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-576
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• D.C. Code § 16-584 — "No employer shall discharge an employee for the
  reason that a creditor of the employee has subjected or attempted to
  subject unpaid earnings of the employee to garnishment or like
  proceedings directed to the employer for the purpose of paying a
  judgment." — https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/16-584
  (accessed 2026-07-06)
• 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 2026-07-06)