Tennessee: Wage Garnishment Limits
The short answer
Tennessee adopts the federal formula word-for-word: an ordinary judgment creditor can take only the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage (Tennessee has no state minimum wage of its own). On top of that, Tennessee subtracts an extra $2.50 per week for each dependent child under 16. Child support and alimony run through a completely separate process capped at a flat 50% of income, and multiple ordinary garnishments are paid strictly in the order they were filed.
| Governing law | Ordinary cap: T.C.A. § 26-2-106. Per-dependent-child add-on: § 26-2-107. Garnishment mechanics, liens, and priority: §§ 26-2-214, 26-2-224 (Title 26, Execution, Ch. 2). Child/spousal support runs through a separate mechanism: T.C.A. § 36-5-501 (Title 36, Domestic Relations) |
|---|---|
| Maximum that can be garnished | Under § 26-2-106(a), the lesser of: (1) 25% of disposable earnings for the week, or (2) the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. Both figures are then reduced by an additional $2.50 per week for each dependent child under 16 who is a Tennessee resident (§ 26-2-107), per the Tennessee courts' own official garnishment-summons notice |
| State rule vs. federal floor | Tennessee adopts the federal CCPA's own numbers verbatim -- 25% of disposable earnings, 30x the federal minimum wage -- with no independent state percentage or multiplier. Tennessee neither strengthens nor weakens the federal formula's core math; its only addition on top of the federal floor is the modest $2.50-per-dependent-child reduction under § 26-2-107, which federal law doesn't provide |
| Minimum-wage protected floor | 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($7.25) = $217.50 of weekly disposable earnings protected. Tennessee has no state minimum wage of its own -- § 26-2-106 references only the federal rate, and the U.S. Department of Labor's own state minimum-wage table lists Tennessee as having 'No state minimum wage law' (updated January 1, 2026). The $217.50 floor is reduced further by $2.50 per dependent child under 16 |
| Support, tax & student loan debts | Child support and alimony don't run through § 26-2-106 at all -- they're enforced through a separate mandatory income assignment, T.C.A. § 36-5-501, capped at a flat 50% of income after FICA, withholding taxes, and the child's health-insurance premium (§ 36-5-501(a)(1)) -- actually LOWER than the federal CCPA's own support ceiling of up to 65% for a single obligor in arrears (15 U.S.C. § 1673(b)(2)), so Tennessee's own flat cap controls. State or federal tax debt is excluded from the ordinary cap entirely: the Tennessee courts' own official garnishment-summons notice (referencing § 26-2-216(b)(2)) states plainly that 'no disposable earnings are exempt' for a tax judgment, tracking federal law's own tax carve-out (15 U.S.C. § 1673(b)(1)(C)). Federal student loan default collection proceeds independently at 15% of disposable pay without a court order (20 U.S.C. § 1095a(a)(1)) |
| Head-of-household/family exemption | A modest, statutorily-fixed dollar add-on rather than a true head-of-household exemption: $2.50 per week for each dependent child under 16 who is a Tennessee resident (§ 26-2-107(a)), on top of the ordinary § 26-2-106 exemption. The debtor must affirmatively tell the employer which dependents to claim, or the add-on doesn't apply (§ 26-2-107(b)-(c)); the dollar figure has been unchanged since a 1989 amendment |
| Multiple garnishments at once | Strict first-in-time: 'A lien obtained under this section shall have priority over any subsequent liens obtained under this section' (§ 26-2-214(b)(2)). A later-filed writ can run concurrently with an earlier one only if it seeks less than the statutory maximum; § 26-2-224 bars a later writ that itself seeks the maximum from running concurrently with an earlier one at all, requiring it to wait until the earlier writ's judgment is satisfied, expires, or is stayed. The Tennessee Attorney General's Opinion No. 19-10 (2019) confirms combined amounts under simultaneous writs can never exceed § 26-2-106's overall cap. Child-support income assignments independently outrank ordinary judgment-creditor garnishments by statute: an assignment under § 36-5-501 'shall take priority over any other assignment or garnishment of wages, as described in title 26, chapter 2' (§ 36-5-501(j)(1)) |
| Protection from being fired | No Tennessee statute specific to discharge over an ORDINARY creditor's garnishment was found, leaving the federal floor (15 U.S.C. § 1674, barring discharge for a single garnishment only) as the applicable rule. Tennessee does have its own broader anti-discharge protection, but only for support income assignments: 'It is unlawful for an employer to use the assignment as a basis for discharge or any disciplinary action against the employee, ... An employer shall be subject to a fine for a Class C misdemeanor if the income assignment is used as a basis to refuse to employ a person or to discharge the obligor/employee or for any disciplinary action' (§ 36-5-501(i)) -- again with no one-garnishment limit, but scoped only to support enforcement, not an ordinary judgment creditor |
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The short answer
If an ordinary creditor — a credit card company, a hospital, a personal-loan lender — already has a money judgment against you in Tennessee, it can garnish your paycheck, but only up to the same limit federal law sets nationwide: the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings for the week, or the amount your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. Tennessee has no minimum wage of its own, so that multiplier always uses the federal $7.25 rate. Tennessee adds one thing federal law doesn't: an extra $2.50 a week of protection for each dependent child under 16. Child support and alimony are handled through a completely different process with their own 50% cap, and if more than one ordinary creditor tries to garnish you at once, the one that filed first gets paid first.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
The ordinary wage-garnishment cap is T.C.A. § 26-2-106, in Title 26's exemptions-and-garnishment chapter. The per-dependent-child add-on sits in the next section, § 26-2-107. The mechanics of running a garnishment — how a lien attaches, how long it lasts, what happens when more than one garnishment hits the same paycheck — are in §§ 26-2-214 and 26-2-224. Child support and alimony are handled entirely separately, through the mandatory income-assignment statute, T.C.A. § 36-5-501.
Maximum that can be garnished
Section 26-2-106(a) sets the cap at the lesser of two numbers: 25% of your disposable earnings for the week, or the amount your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. That's the identical formula federal law itself uses. On top of it, § 26-2-107 subtracts an extra $2.50 per week from whichever of those two figures applies, for each dependent child under 16 living in Tennessee — the official Tennessee courts garnishment-summons form spells out that this $2.50 reduction applies to both prongs of the calculation, not just one.
State rule vs. federal floor
Tennessee doesn't change the federal math at all — 25% and 30 times the federal minimum wage are exactly the numbers Congress set in the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Tennessee is a state that simply restates the federal formula in its own code rather than adopting a stricter or looser one. The only place Tennessee adds real protection beyond the federal floor is the $2.50-per-dependent-child reduction, a small but genuine extra layer federal law doesn't provide.
Minimum-wage protected floor
The 30-times multiplier applies only to the federal minimum hourly wage, currently $7.25, because Tennessee has no state minimum wage law of its own — confirmed by the U.S. Department of Labor's own state-by-state minimum wage table. That works out to a base floor of $217.50 of weekly disposable earnings fully protected, further increased by $2.50 for each dependent child under 16.
Support, tax & student loan debts
Child support and alimony bypass § 26-2-106 completely. Instead, T.C.A. § 36-5-501 requires an automatic income assignment capped at a flat 50% of income after FICA, withholding taxes, and any health-insurance premium covering the child are deducted — a flat ceiling that is actually lower than what federal law alone would allow (federal law permits up to 65% for a single obligor more than 12 weeks behind), so Tennessee's own cap is the one that controls. State and federal tax debt isn't limited by § 26-2-106 either: the Tennessee courts' own official garnishment notice states plainly that no disposable earnings are exempt from a tax-debt garnishment. Federal student loan default collection is separate again — the U.S. Department of Education can take up to 15% of disposable pay without ever going to court.
Head-of-household/family exemption
Tennessee's version of a family exemption is modest and mechanical: $2.50 per week for each dependent child under 16 who lives in Tennessee, added on top of the ordinary § 26-2-106 exemption. It isn't automatic — you have to tell your employer which dependents to claim, and if you don't, the extra protection doesn't apply. The dollar figure hasn't changed since a 1989 amendment, so it's worth considerably less in real terms today than when it was set.
Multiple garnishments at once
Tennessee runs on strict first-in-time priority: whichever garnishment lien attaches first gets paid first, and it outranks any later one (§ 26-2-214(b)). A creditor who files a second writ can collect concurrently with the first only if their combined take doesn't exceed the overall § 26-2-106 cap; if the first writ is already taking the statutory maximum, the second one has to wait its turn entirely until the first is paid off, expires, or is stayed by an installment order — confirmed by the Tennessee Attorney General's own 2019 opinion interpreting these sections together. A child-support income assignment cuts through all of this: by statute, it automatically outranks any ordinary judgment-creditor garnishment on the same paycheck.
Protection from being fired
No Tennessee statute specifically bars firing someone over an ordinary creditor's garnishment, so the federal rule controls: 15 U.S.C. § 1674 protects you from discharge over a single garnishment, but not a second one. Tennessee does have its own, stronger anti-discharge law, but it only covers support income assignments — an employer who fires or disciplines an employee because of a child-support withholding order commits a Class C misdemeanor, with no limit to a single instance. That protection just doesn't extend to an ordinary credit-card or medical-debt garnishment.
What trips people up
Because Tennessee has no state minimum wage, the "30x minimum wage" prong of the formula always uses the lower federal $7.25 figure — someone who assumes their state's higher minimum wage applies (as it would in many neighboring states) will calculate the wrong protected floor. The $2.50-per-dependent-child add-on is real but easy to overlook, and it doesn't apply automatically — the debtor has to affirmatively tell the employer about each qualifying child. Finally, "first filed, first paid" means a second creditor with an otherwise-valid garnishment order may collect nothing at all for months if an earlier garnishment is already taking the full statutory maximum.
Common questions
Does Tennessee protect more of my paycheck than federal law?
Only slightly — the percentage and minimum-wage multiplier are identical to federal law, but the $2.50-per-dependent-child reduction is a real, if small, extra layer of state protection.
What if two creditors both try to garnish my wages at the same time?
The one whose lien attached first gets paid first; a later garnishment can run alongside it only if the combined amount doesn't exceed the overall cap, and if the first is already taking the maximum, the second has to wait.
Can I be fired for a garnishment in Tennessee?
Not for a single ordinary garnishment — federal law bars that. Tennessee law adds a stronger, separate protection, but only for child-support and alimony withholding orders.
Statutes and sources
- T.C.A. § 26-2-106(a) — "The maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment may not exceed: (1) Twenty-five percent (25%) of the disposable earnings for that week; or (2) The amount by which the disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty (30) times the federal minimum hourly wage at the time the earnings for any pay period become due and payable, whichever is less." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-26/chapter-2/part-1/section-26-2-106/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 26-2-107(a) — "To the above allowances, there shall be added as exempt to the judgment debtor the sum of two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50) per week for each dependent child under sixteen (16) years of age and a resident of this state." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-26/chapter-2/part-1/section-26-2-107/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 26-2-214(b) — "A lien obtained under this section shall have priority over any subsequent liens obtained under this section." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-26/chapter-2/part-2/section-26-2-214/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 26-2-224(a) — "a writ of garnishment that is filed later in time than another such writ, and which deducts the maximum amount allowable by law from the debtor's wages, shall not run concurrently with the earlier filed writ... Such later filed writ of garnishment shall not begin to run until the earlier filed writ's judgment has been satisfied, such earlier filed writ has expired, or such earlier filed writ has been stayed." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-26/chapter-2/part-2/section-26-2-224/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 26-2-216(b)(2) (official notice) — "If the judgment is for state or federal taxes, no disposable earnings are exempt under 15 USCS § 1673(b)." — https://www.tncourts.gov/sites/default/files/docs/execution_garnishment_1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 36-5-501(a)(1) — "Withholding shall not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the employee's income after FICA, withholding taxes, and a health insurance premium that covers the child, are deducted." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-36/chapter-5/part-5/section-36-5-501/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 36-5-501(i) — "It is unlawful for an employer to use the assignment as a basis for discharge or any disciplinary action against the employee... An employer shall be subject to a fine for a Class C misdemeanor if the income assignment is used as a basis to refuse to employ a person or to discharge the obligor/employee or for any disciplinary action." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-36/chapter-5/part-5/section-36-5-501/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- T.C.A. § 36-5-501(j)(1) — "An assignment under this section shall take priority over any other assignment or garnishment of wages, as described in title 26, chapter 2, or salary, commissions or other income, except those deductions made mandatory by law or hereafter made mandatory." — https://law.justia.com/codes/tennessee/title-36/chapter-5/part-5/section-36-5-501/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1673(a) — "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... whichever is less." — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1673 (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b) — "The maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subject to garnishment to enforce any order for the support of any person shall not exceed— (A)... 50 per centum... and (B)... 60 per centum." — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1673 (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.