New Mexico: Wage Garnishment Limits
The short answer
New Mexico protects the GREATER of 75% of disposable earnings or 40 times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage per week — meaning at most 25% of disposable earnings can be taken, the same percentage federal law allows, but with a bigger and broader minimum-wage floor (40x instead of federal's 30x, using whichever of the federal, state, or local minimum wage is highest where the debtor works). There's no separate head-of-household exemption, but exempt wages keep their exempt status if deposited into a bank account and can still be traced. Child and spousal support garnishments are capped at a flat 50% of disposable earnings — actually lower than the federal ceiling for support, which can reach 65%. Competing garnishments are paid first-in-time, in the order served. Only the federal rule bars firing an employee for a single garnishment; New Mexico has no independent state anti-discharge statute.
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This is the general rule in New Mexico. Ezel applies current New Mexico law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | NMSA 1978 § 35-12-7 (wage exemption formula and support cap), § 35-12-9(B) (multiple-garnishment priority) |
|---|---|
| Maximum that can be garnished | Exempt from garnishment is the GREATER of (1) 75% of the debtor's disposable earnings for the pay period, or (2) an amount each week equal to 40 times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate where the wages were earned (§ 35-12-7(A)) — so at most 25% of disposable earnings can ever be taken, and often less |
| State rule vs. federal floor | Matches the federal 25% ordinary cap in percentage terms (75% exempt = 25% garnishable, the same fraction as federal law), but is more protective on the minimum-wage floor: 40 times the HIGHEST applicable federal, state, or local minimum hourly wage, versus federal law's 30 times the federal minimum wage alone. A 2023 amendment also added bank-deposit traceability protection for exempt wages, closing a gap federal law doesn't address |
| Minimum-wage protected floor | 40 times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate — federal, state, or local, whichever is highest at the place the wages were earned (§ 35-12-7(A)(2), (B)(2)) — a bigger multiplier than the federal 30x, and one that can rise further in a city with its own higher minimum wage |
| Support, tax & student loan debts | Support orders are capped separately and more simply than federal law: a flat 50% of the debtor's disposable earnings for any pay period, with no higher tier for arrears or fewer dependents (§ 35-12-7(A), (C)) — actually lower than the federal support ceiling, which can reach 65%. State or federal tax debt and federal student loan collection operate through their own separate administrative processes outside this statute entirely |
| Head-of-household/family exemption | None built into the wage-garnishment formula itself — the flat 75%/40x-wage-floor test already applies to every debtor regardless of household status. (New Mexico's separate personal-property exemption statutes have their own head-of-family provisions, but those protect property, not wages, and are outside this survey's scope) |
| Multiple garnishments at once | First-in-time. If a debtor's wages are subject to more than one judgment lien, the liens are satisfied in the order the garnishment was served on the garnishee (§ 35-12-9(B)) |
| Protection from being fired | No independent New Mexico statute bars firing an employee over an ordinary wage garnishment; only the federal rule applies, barring discharge for a single garnishment for one debt (15 U.S.C. § 1674) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Governing law
New Mexico's wage-garnishment exemption formula and its support-order cap
both live in one section, NMSA 1978 § 35-12-7. The rule for resolving
competing garnishments against the same paycheck is a separate section in the
same garnishment article, § 35-12-9(B).
Maximum garnishment amount
The statute is written from the debtor's side: it defines what's exempt, not
what's garnishable. Exempt from garnishment is the greater of 75% of
disposable earnings for the pay period, or an amount each week equal to 40
times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate where the wages were
earned (§ 35-12-7(A)). Flipped around, that means a creditor can never take
more than 25% of disposable earnings, and often less if the minimum-wage
floor protects more.
Federal floor comparison
On the percentage alone, New Mexico's 25%-garnishable share matches the
federal CCPA cap exactly. Where New Mexico goes further is the minimum-wage
floor: 40 times the highest applicable minimum wage, versus federal law's 30
times the federal minimum wage specifically. Because "highest applicable"
means the highest of the federal, state, or local minimum wage where the
debtor works (§ 35-12-7(B)(2)), a worker in a city with its own higher
minimum wage gets a bigger protected floor than federal law would give them.
New Mexico also added, in a 2023 amendment, a protection federal law doesn't
offer at all: exempt wages keep their exempt status once deposited into a
personal bank account, as long as they're reasonably traceable (§
35-12-7(D)) — closing a gap that used to let creditors reach wages the moment
they hit a debtor's checking account.
Minimum wage protection floor
40 times the highest applicable minimum hourly wage rate for an eight-hour
day and 40-hour week — federal, state, or local, whichever is highest at the
time and place the wages are payable (§ 35-12-7(A)(2), (B)(2)). It doesn't
matter whether the employer is otherwise exempt from paying that wage rate;
the statute uses it as a benchmark regardless.
Priority debt exceptions
Support garnishments are simpler and, in New Mexico's case, actually more
protective than the federal support tiers: a flat 50% of the debtor's
disposable earnings, with no escalation for arrears or fewer dependents (§
35-12-7(A), (C)) — federal law can reach up to 65% in some support cases.
State and federal tax debt and federal student loan collection follow their
own separate administrative processes entirely outside this garnishment
statute.
Head-of-household exemption
There's no separate head-of-household add-on inside the wage-garnishment
formula — the 75%/40x-minimum-wage test already applies uniformly regardless
of whether the debtor supports a family. New Mexico does have head-of-family
provisions elsewhere, but those live in the state's personal-property
exemption statutes and protect property, not wages.
Multiple garnishments priority
First-in-time. If a debtor's wages are subject to more than one judgment
lien, New Mexico pays them in the order the garnishment was served on the
garnishee (§ 35-12-9(B)) — an earlier-served creditor is satisfied before a
later one gets anything.
Employee termination protection
New Mexico has no independent statute of its own protecting an employee from
being fired over a wage garnishment. Only the federal floor applies: an
employer can't discharge an employee because of a single garnishment for one
debt (15 U.S.C. § 1674). A second garnishment for a different debt isn't
protected by either federal or New Mexico law.
What trips people up
Don't read the statute's "75% exempt" language as more generous than federal
law — it's arithmetically the same 25%-garnishable share federal law sets.
The real difference is the minimum-wage floor, and it only matters for lower
earners. And don't assume money is safe just because it landed in a bank
account: before 2023, New Mexico case law held that wage exemptions applied
only to money still owed by the employer, not money already paid to the
debtor (In re Johnson, 593 B.R. 331 (Bankr. D.N.M. 2018)). The 2023 amendment
changed that going forward — exempt wages now keep their exempt status once
deposited, as long as they can still be traced.
Common questions
Does New Mexico protect more of my paycheck than federal law?
The percentage cap is the same 25%, but the minimum-wage floor is bigger — 40
times the highest applicable minimum wage instead of federal law's 30 times
the federal minimum wage. In a place with a higher local minimum wage, that
floor can be significantly higher than the federal one.
If my wages get deposited into my bank account, can a creditor still take
them?
Only if they're no longer traceable to your paycheck. A 2023 change to §
35-12-7(D) lets exempt wages keep their exempt status after deposit, as long
as you can reasonably trace the funds back to your paycheck.
I already have a child-support garnishment — can an ordinary creditor add a
second one on top?
It can try, but garnishments are paid first-in-time under § 35-12-9(B): a
later-served ordinary garnishment doesn't get paid until an earlier one is
satisfied.
Statutes and sources
- NMSA 1978 § 35-12-7 — https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-35/article-12/section-35-12-7/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- NMSA 1978 § 35-12-9 — https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/chapter-35/article-12/section-35-12-9/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1673 — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1673 (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1674 — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1674 (accessed 2026-07-05)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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