Wage Garnishment Limits in Virginia

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Virginia's wage-garnishment cap lives in the Wages Exempt chapter, Va. Code § 34-29. The mechanics of how a garnishment case actually proceeds — the summons, service on the employer, the exemption-claim hearing — are set out separately in Title 8.01, Chapter 18, Article 7 (§§ 8.01-511 to -525).

Maximum that can be garnished

Under § 34-29(A), the most that can be withheld from your paycheck in any workweek is the lesser of two numbers: 25% of your disposable earnings for that week, or the amount your disposable earnings exceed 40 times the higher of the federal or Virginia 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) caps ordinary garnishment at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. Virginia uses the identical 25% figure, but multiplies by 40 instead of 30, and lets the higher of the federal or Virginia minimum wage set that multiplier's base. Because Virginia's own minimum wage is well above the federal rate, this protects noticeably more of a Virginia paycheck than the federal formula alone would.

Minimum-wage protected floor

The 40-times multiplier in § 34-29(A)(2) uses whichever is higher: the federal minimum hourly wage ($7.25) or Virginia's own minimum hourly wage, which is $12.77 an hour from January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. That works out to $510.80 of weekly disposable earnings that's fully protected right now — a figure the state's own garnishment-summons instructions confirm. Virginia's minimum wage is set to keep climbing (to $13.75 on January 1, 2027, then $15.00 on January 1, 2028), so this protected floor will keep rising too, even though the 40x multiplier itself stays fixed.

Support, tax & student loan debts

A completely different set of rules applies once the debt isn't an ordinary judgment. A support order isn't limited by the 25%/40x formula at all — § 34-29(C) lets it reach 50% of disposable earnings, or 60% if you're not also supporting another spouse or child, rising to 55%/65% once the support arrears are more than 12 weeks old. A state or federal tax debt is also completely outside the ordinary cap today: under § 34-29(B)(3), a tax garnishment can take up to 100% of disposable earnings. That's changing for state taxes only — an already-signed 2026 law caps state tax garnishments at the same 25%/40x formula as ordinary debt, but not until July 1, 2027 (see "What trips people up" below). Federal student loan collections proceed through their own separate federal administrative process (15% cap, 20 U.S.C. § 1095a), independent of this chapter entirely.

Head-of-household/family exemption

Virginia doesn't give wage garnishment itself any extra head-of-household or family-support add-on. A general homestead exemption for a debtor with dependents does exist elsewhere in the same title (§ 34-4), but it protects a separate pool of property and money the debtor claims exempt — it isn't part of how a wage garnishment's percentage cap is calculated, and personal- property exemption schedules are outside this survey's scope.

Multiple garnishments at once

If more than one claim is competing for the same paycheck, support withholding comes off the top first. What's left is then divided among ordinary garnishments strictly in the order the writ of fieri facias was delivered to the sheriff — the earliest-delivered garnishment gets paid first, and a later one waits its turn, per the state court system's own Garnishee Information Sheet instructions for applying § 34-29.

Protection from being fired

Section 34-29(G) makes it illegal to fire an employee because their earnings were garnished for any one debt. This matches the federal anti-retaliation floor (15 U.S.C. § 1674) exactly — Virginia doesn't extend the protection any further, for example to a second or later garnishment.

What trips people up

The "state or federal tax" carve-out in § 34-29(B)(3) is not permanent. An already-signed 2026 law (HB488, Chapter 396) rewrites that carve-out to cover federal tax debt only, and adds a brand-new cap for state tax garnishments matching the ordinary 25%/40x formula — but the change doesn't take effect until July 1, 2027. Anyone relying on this page before that date should know a Virginia state tax garnishment can still take up to 100% of disposable earnings; only after that date does it become subject to the same limit as an ordinary judgment creditor. Also, the 25%/40x formula is the LESSER of the two figures, not whichever is bigger — the number that protects you most is the one that controls. And the § 34-4 homestead exemption, while it shows up on the same official exemption-claim form used in garnishment cases, doesn't change the wage-garnishment percentage itself; it's a separate property exemption a debtor claims independently.

Common questions

Can a creditor garnish more than 25% if I owe a large debt? No — for an ordinary judgment, 25% (or the 40x-minimum-wage alternative, if lower) is the ceiling no matter how large the debt, though a support order or a tax debt follows different, usually higher, limits.

Does it matter how often I'm paid? The 40x multiplier is stated per week; garnishment orders and the state's own worksheets scale it proportionally for biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly pay periods.

What if I already have a garnishment and a tax debt shows up too? The tax debt isn't limited by the ordinary cap at all today — it can reach up to 100% of your disposable earnings, ahead of an ordinary creditor's claim.

Statutes and sources

• Va. Code § 8.01-511(A) — "A. On a suggestion by the judgment creditor that, by reason of the lien of his writ of fieri facias, there is a liability on any person other than the judgment debtor ... a summons in the form prescribed by § 8.01-512.3 may be sued out of the clerk's office ... The summons and the notice and claim for exemption form required pursuant to § 8.01-512.4 shall be served on the garnishee, and shall be served on the judgment debtor promptly after service on the garnishee." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title8.01/chapter18/article7/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Code § 34-29(A) — "A. Except as provided in subsections B and C, the maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek that is subjected to garnishment may not exceed the lesser of the following amounts: 1. Twenty-five percent of his disposable earnings for that week; or 2. The amount by which his disposable earnings for that week exceed 40 times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by 29 U.S.C. § 206(a)(1) or the Virginia minimum hourly wage prescribed by § 40.1-28.10, whichever is greater, in effect at the time earnings are payable." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title34/chapter4/section34-29/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Code § 34-29(B) — "B. The restrictions of subsection A do not apply in the case of: 1. Any order for the support of any person issued by a court of competent jurisdiction or in accordance with an administrative procedure that is established by state law, affords substantial due process, and is subject to judicial review. 2. Any order of any court of bankruptcy under Chapter XIII of the Bankruptcy Act. 3. Any debt due for any state or federal tax." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title34/chapter4/section34-29/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Code § 34-29(C) — "C. The maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek that is subject to garnishment to enforce any order for the support of any person shall not exceed: 1. Sixty percent of such individual's disposable earnings for that week; or 2. If such individual is supporting a spouse or dependent child other than the spouse or child with respect to whose support such order was issued, 50 percent of such individual's disposable earnings for that week. The 50 percent specified in subdivision 2 shall be 55 percent and the 60 percent specified in subdivision 1 shall be 65 percent if and to the extent that such earnings are subject to garnishment to enforce an order for support for a period that is more than 12 weeks prior to the beginning of such workweek." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title34/chapter4/section34-29/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Code § 34-29(G) — "G. No employer may discharge any employee by reason of the fact that his earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one indebtedness." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title34/chapter4/section34-29/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Code § 40.1-28.10(B) — "B. From January 1, 2026, until January 1, 2027, every employer shall pay to each of its employees wages at a rate not less than the greater of (i) $12.77 per hour or (ii) the federal minimum wage." — https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title40.1/chapter3/section40.1-28.10/ (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Va. Courts Form DC-455, Garnishee Information Sheet — "Virginia law requires that payments for support ordered by a court or by the Division of Child Support Enforcement must be deducted from the maximum amount of disposable earnings subject to garnishment as calculated above in the Second Step to determine the amount left for garnishments. (There may be none left.) After honoring child support deductions, garnishments are to be honored on the basis of the date shown on the GARNISHMENT SUMMONS as to when the writ of fieri facias was delivered to the sheriff." — https://www.vacourts.gov/forms/district/dc455.pdf (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)