6/450 Garnishment: Paycheck Limits, Exemptions, and Contesting

Alabama wage garnishment for most consumer debts is capped at whichever is less: 25% of your weekly disposable earnings, or the amount by which those earnings exceed $217.50 per week. If your disposable earnings fall below $217.50 a week, your paycheck cannot be garnished at all for an ordinary debt.¹ Child support orders and a few other categories follow different rules, and you have the right to claim exemptions in court if the wrong money is being taken.

How Much of Your Paycheck Can Be Taken

Alabama uses the same formula as federal law. A creditor with a court judgment can garnish the lesser of:

25% of your disposable earnings for the week, or
The amount your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. At $7.25 an hour, that protected floor is $217.50 per week.²

“Disposable earnings” is not your gross pay, and it is not your take-home pay either. It is what remains after legally required deductions: federal income tax, state and local income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Voluntary deductions such as 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, and union dues are not subtracted first, so the garnishable share is usually larger than the number on the bottom of your paystub would suggest. Pension and retirement disability payments are excluded from disposable earnings under Alabama’s consumer credit statute, so they are not reachable for consumer debts.¹

Two Quick Examples

Say your weekly disposable earnings are $500. The 25% test gives $125. The minimum-wage test gives $282.50 ($500 minus $217.50). The smaller number controls, so the garnishment is $125 a week.

Now say your weekly disposable earnings are $250. The 25% test gives $62.50. The minimum-wage test gives $32.50 ($250 minus $217.50). The garnishment is limited to $32.50 that week.

How Long It Continues

A wage garnishment is not a one-time event. Your employer must keep withholding each pay period, and after the first 30 days of withholding must begin paying the accumulated funds into court, with payments continuing at least monthly until the judgment is satisfied.³

Child Support Takes More

If the garnishment is for child support, the caps are much higher. Alabama’s administrative rules, which match the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, allow:

50% if you support a second family and are 12 weeks or less behind
55% if you support a second family and are more than 12 weeks behind
60% if you do not support a second family and are 12 weeks or less behind
65% if you do not support a second family and are more than 12 weeks behind⁴

Child support also takes priority over other garnishments. If a credit card garnishment is already running and a support order arrives, support gets paid first.²

Bank Accounts Work Differently

A creditor holding a judgment can also serve a writ of garnishment on your bank. Unlike a wage garnishment, which takes a slice of each paycheck, a bank garnishment can freeze what’s in the account at once.

Some deposits keep federal protections after they land in the account. Social Security benefits are generally exempt from garnishment for private debts, though they can still be reached for child support, alimony, and federal tax debts.⁵ VA benefits and certain other federal payments carry similar protections. If your account holds a mix of exempt and non-exempt money, you may need to trace which deposits came from protected sources and assert the exemption in court.

Income and Property That’s Exempt

Several categories of income are shielded from ordinary creditor garnishment:

Social Security benefits, exempt from private creditor garnishment under federal law (but reachable for child support, alimony, and federal tax debts).⁵
Pension and retirement disability payments, excluded from disposable earnings under Alabama’s consumer credit statute.¹
Weekly disposable earnings below $217.50, fully protected from garnishment for ordinary debts.²

Alabama also lets every resident shield up to $7,500 worth of personal property from levy, sale, or garnishment, with the debtor choosing what to protect within that limit.⁶ Wages and salaries are specifically excluded from this $7,500 exemption, so you cannot stack it on top of the wage-garnishment cap. Wages have their own protections under the limits above.⁷

How to Contest a Garnishment

If money is being taken that you believe is exempt, or the garnishment is otherwise wrong, you can push back. Alabama law lets you file a claim of exemption with the court where the garnishment is pending. The claim must be in writing, verified under oath, and must include a statement describing your personal property, your financial assets, and their value.⁸

Timing is the trap. If you received notice of the garnishment, you must file the exemption claim before the court enters a judgment of condemnation, the order that formally hands the garnished money to the creditor. If proper notice never reached you, a condemnation judgment does not wipe out your right to claim the exemption. When notice is served through the sheriff, it must arrive at least five days before any condemnation judgment.⁸

Exemptions are not the only ground. You can also challenge whether the underlying judgment is valid, whether the amount being withheld exceeds the legal cap, or whether the writ was properly served. Any of these can be raised with the court that issued the garnishment.

Can Your Employer Fire You Over It

Federal law prohibits an employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for any one debt, no matter how many separate orders or proceedings are filed to collect that single debt. An employer who violates the rule faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both.⁹

That shield covers one debt only. Once a second, separate debt triggers its own garnishment, the federal protection drops away and firing over the garnishments is legally permitted. Debtors facing multiple orders sometimes look at consolidation or bankruptcy for this reason alone.

When a Court Judgment Isn’t Required

For credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and other consumer debts, a creditor cannot garnish your wages until it has sued you, given you a chance to respond, and obtained a judgment.¹ With the judgment in hand, the creditor files a sworn affidavit stating the amount owed and identifying the employer or bank holding your wages or funds, and the court issues the writ.¹⁰

A few debts skip that process. Child support orders come with income withholding built in. The IRS can levy for federal tax debts without a court judgment. And defaulted federal student loans can trigger an administrative wage garnishment of up to 15% of disposable income, entirely outside the court system.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 5-19-15 – Garnishment
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 6 Civil Practice 6-10-7
4
Alabama Administrative Code. Alabama Administrative Code 660-3-16-.04 – Withholding Limits and Costs
5
Social Security Administration. Levy and Garnishment of Benefits (SSR 79-4)
6
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-10-6 – Personal Property of Resident
7
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-10-6.1 – Exclusions From Personal Property
8
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-10-37 – Contest of Exemption Claim
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge From Employment by Reason of Garnishment
10
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 6-6-391 – Affidavit of Amount Due