Oregon: Wage Garnishment Limits
The short answer
Oregon protects the GREATER of 75% of your disposable earnings or a fixed dollar floor set by statute -- currently $400 per week for an ordinary debt, well above the federal $217.50 figure most states use. That floor is on a legislated step-up schedule (2024's Senate Bill 1595) that rises again on July 1, 2027, when it permanently switches to 30 times Oregon's own state minimum wage instead of a fixed dollar amount. A separate, lower floor applies specifically to child support, spousal support, and restitution judgments, since those debts are allowed to reach deeper into a paycheck. Support withholding is deducted first, ahead of an ordinary garnishment, and Oregon law bars firing an employee over wage garnishment with no limit to a single debt the way federal law has.
| Governing law | ORS § 18.385 (the wage exemption formula, its exceptions, and the anti-discharge rule); ORS § 18.375 (definitions); ORS § 18.627 (priority among multiple writs of garnishment) |
|---|---|
| Maximum that can be garnished | A creditor can reach at most the LESSER of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above the applicable statutory dollar floor for the pay period (§ 18.385(1)-(2)) -- for wages payable between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, that floor is $400/week, $832/two-week period, $912/half-month, or $1,792/month. The floor is on a legislated step-up schedule from 2024's SB 1595 and rises again each July 1 through 2027, after which it converts permanently to 30 times Oregon's own state minimum wage |
| State rule vs. federal floor | Substantially more protective than the federal CCPA floor and getting more so on a legislated schedule -- Oregon's current $400/week floor is nearly double the federal $217.50 figure, and from July 1, 2027 onward the floor switches entirely to a multiple of Oregon's own state minimum wage rather than the federal rate, permanently widening the gap as Oregon's minimum wage rises |
| Minimum-wage protected floor | Not simply 30 times the federal minimum wage -- Oregon replaced that model with a legislatively scheduled DOLLAR AMOUNT that steps up on set dates (2024 SB 1595): $400/week for wages payable July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 (having already risen from $254 pre-2025 through $305 and $338 in earlier steps). Starting July 1, 2027, the floor converts to 30 times the Oregon state minimum hourly wage under ORS 653.025(1), recalculated annually by the State Court Administrator, rather than the federal $7.25 rate |
| Support, tax & student loan debts | Child support, spousal support, and restitution judgments use a SEPARATE, LOWER floor schedule under § 18.385(6) -- $254/week, $509/two-week period, $545/half-month, $1,090/month, unchanged since before the 2024 reform -- reflecting that these debts are allowed to reach deeper into a paycheck. Section 18.385(5) requires an employer to deduct support-order withholding FIRST from the nonexempt pool before any amount goes to an ordinary garnishment. Bankruptcy court orders and federal tax debt are excluded from § 18.385's protections entirely; state tax debt is excluded from the floor protections too, and the 75% baseline exemption doesn't apply to a state-agency debt if the state issues a special notice under ORS § 18.855(6). Federal student loans follow the independent federal mechanism, capped at 15% of disposable pay under 20 U.S.C. § 1095a |
| Head-of-household/family exemption | None beyond the standard formula. The 75%/statutory-floor exemption applies uniformly regardless of how many dependents a debtor supports; there's no separate per-dependent add-on or family-support exemption layered on top |
| Multiple garnishments at once | Strict first-in-time priority by date of DELIVERY to the garnishee, not filing or judgment date: § 18.627(1) gives the first writ delivered priority over all later writs for the same debtor, and a garnishee only pays a later writ from whatever nonexempt property remains after fully complying with the first. One wrinkle: if the first writ doesn't claim ALL of the nonexempt wages available (for example, because it's a smaller fixed debt), § 18.627(2) lets the garnishee make concurrent payment of the remaining nonexempt balance to a second writ rather than making it wait. Support orders sit outside this queue entirely -- they're deducted first, before this priority system even applies to what's left |
| Protection from being fired | Broader than the federal floor: § 18.385(11) states plainly that 'an employer may not discharge any individual because the individual has had earnings garnished,' with no limit to a single indebtedness the way federal law (15 U.S.C. § 1674) and many states' own statutes are written. On its face, Oregon's rule protects an employee even after a second or third unrelated garnishment, not just the first |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
Oregon protects the GREATER of 75% of your disposable earnings or a fixed dollar floor set directly by statute -- currently $400 a week for an ordinary debt (for wages payable between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027), well above the $217.50 figure most states use by simply following federal law. That floor isn't static: a 2024 law, Senate Bill 1595, put it on a legislated step-up schedule that already rose twice since 2024 and rises once more on July 1, 2027, when it switches permanently from a fixed dollar amount to 30 times Oregon's own, much higher state minimum wage. Child support, spousal support, and restitution debts use a separate, lower floor, since the law allows those debts to reach deeper into a paycheck, and that support withholding gets deducted before an ordinary garnishment even sees what's left. Oregon also goes further than federal law on job security: its anti-discharge rule doesn't limit itself to a single garnishment the way federal law does.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
The formula, its exceptions, and the anti-discharge rule all live in one section, ORS § 18.385, with definitions in the section just before it, § 18.375. Priority among multiple garnishment writs served on the same employer is handled separately, in § 18.627.
Maximum that can be garnished
A creditor can reach at most the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount above the statutory dollar floor for the pay period. For wages payable between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, that floor is $400 for a weekly pay period, $832 for two weeks, $912 for a half-month, or $1,792 for a month. Those numbers come from a legislated step schedule (2024's SB 1595) that already climbed from $254 (pre-2025) through $305 and $338 in earlier steps, and will step up once more before converting entirely to a different kind of floor in 2027.
State rule vs. federal floor
Oregon is meaningfully more protective than federal law, and the gap is written to keep growing. The current $400/week floor is nearly double the federal $217.50 figure. Starting July 1, 2027, Oregon stops using any fixed dollar amount at all and switches to 30 times its OWN state minimum hourly wage -- a figure that will keep rising with Oregon's minimum wage, permanently outpacing the federal rate that most other states are still tied to.
Minimum-wage protected floor
Right now, the floor isn't a minimum-wage multiple at all -- it's a specific dollar figure set directly by the legislature's own step schedule, currently $400 for a weekly pay period. That changes on July 1, 2027, when the floor converts to 30 times the Oregon state minimum hourly wage under ORS 653.025(1), recalculated every year by the State Court Administrator rather than fixed by statute going forward.
Support, tax & student loan debts
Child support, spousal support, and restitution judgments run on their own, LOWER floor schedule under § 18.385(6) -- $254 a week, $509 for two weeks, $545 for a half-month, $1,090 for a month, figures that haven't changed since before the 2024 reform. That's intentional: these debts are allowed to take a bigger bite than an ordinary creditor's judgment. On top of that, § 18.385(5) requires an employer to subtract support-order withholding from a paycheck FIRST, before applying anything to an ordinary garnishment. Bankruptcy court orders and federal tax debt sit entirely outside § 18.385's protections. State tax debt loses the floor protections too, and even the base 75% exemption can be displaced if the state issues a special notice under a separate section. Federal student loans follow their own independent federal cap of 15% of disposable pay.
Head-of-household/family exemption
There isn't a separate one. The 75%/statutory-floor formula applies the same way no matter how many dependents a debtor supports -- no extra per-dependent dollar amount or broader family exemption layered on top.
Multiple garnishments at once
Oregon runs on strict first-in-time priority based on when a writ was actually DELIVERED to the employer, not when it was filed. Section 18.627 gives the first writ delivered full priority, and a later writ only gets paid from whatever nonexempt wages are left after the first is satisfied. There's one practical wrinkle: if the first writ doesn't claim the full amount of nonexempt wages available in a pay period (say, because it's a smaller, fixed debt), the employer can pay the leftover nonexempt balance to a second writ at the same time, rather than making that second creditor wait for the first one to finish entirely. Support withholding bypasses this queue altogether -- it comes out first, before this ordinary-creditor priority system even applies to what remains.
Protection from being fired
Oregon's rule reads more broadly than federal law: § 18.385(11) says an employer "may not discharge any individual because the individual has had earnings garnished," full stop, with no language limiting the protection to a single indebtedness. Federal law (15 U.S.C. § 1674) and many states' own statutes only protect against discharge tied to one garnished debt -- Oregon's text doesn't carry that limitation.
What trips people up
Oregon's wage-garnishment floor is a moving target on purpose, and it's easy to cite a number that was correct a year ago but isn't anymore. The 2024 reform (SB 1595) built FOUR separate step dates into the same statute -- pre-2025, two 2025 dates, and a 2026 date -- before a permanent structural change in 2027, so the right figure depends entirely on when the wages are actually payable, not on when the garnishment started or when the debt was incurred. It's also easy to assume the support-debt floor ($254/week) and the ordinary-debt floor ($400/week, as of this writing) are the same number; they aren't, and the gap between them is the whole point -- support debts are meant to reach further into a paycheck than an ordinary creditor's judgment can.
Common questions
Is Oregon's wage garnishment protection the same as the federal $217.50-a-week floor I've read about?
No -- Oregon's own statutory floor is substantially higher ($400/week as of mid-2026) and set by state law, not the federal formula; the federal figure only matters in states that don't have their own, more protective rule.
Will the amount protected from my paycheck change again soon?
Yes -- Oregon's floor is on a legislated schedule that rises again on July 1, 2027, when it switches from a fixed dollar figure to 30 times Oregon's own state minimum wage, recalculated every year afterward.
Can my employer fire me if I get garnished more than once?
Oregon's statute doesn't limit its anti-discharge protection to a single garnishment the way federal law does, so on its face it protects an employee even after more than one.
Statutes and sources
- ORS § 18.385(1)-(2) — "75 percent of the disposable earnings of an individual are exempt from execution... For wages payable on or after July 1, 2026, and before July 1, 2027, $400. For wages payable on or after July 1, 2027, the minimum wage specified in ORS 653.025 (1), multiplied by 30." — https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors018.html (accessed 2026-07-05)
- ORS § 18.385(5)-(6) — "An employer shall deduct from the amount of disposable earnings determined to be nonexempt... any amounts withheld... under a [support] order... The employer shall make payment under a garnishment only of those amounts remaining... If a writ of garnishment includes... an attestation that a debt arises out of a child support or spousal support obligation... the individual's disposable earnings are exempt only to the extent that payment... would result in net disposable earnings... of less than... $254 for any period of one week or less." — https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors018.html (accessed 2026-07-05)
- ORS § 18.385(7)-(8), (11) — "Subsections (1) to (6) of this section do not apply to: (a) Any order of a court of bankruptcy. (b) Any debt due for federal tax... An employer may not discharge any individual because the individual has had earnings garnished." — https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors018.html (accessed 2026-07-05)
- ORS § 18.627(1)-(2) — "The first writ of garnishment delivered to a garnishee has priority over all other writs delivered to the garnishee for the same debtor... If the first writ does not garnish all wages of the debtor that are not exempt from execution, the garnishee shall make concurrent payment on a subsequently delivered writ of the balance." — https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors018.html (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 20 U.S.C. § 1095a(a)(1) — "the amount deducted for any pay period may not exceed 15 percent of disposable pay, except that a greater percentage may be deducted with the written consent of the individual involved." — https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title20-section1095a&num=0&edition=prelim (accessed 2026-07-05)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.