Wage Garnishment for Child Support: CCPA Limits Explained

Most child support in the United States is collected by income withholding: the employer deducts support from pay and sends it to the state disbursement unit before the worker sees it. Texas reports that about 80 percent of its collections arrive this way.

The federal Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1673(b), caps how deep that deduction can cut. For support orders the ceiling is 50, 55, 60, or 65 percent of disposable earnings. States may protect more of a paycheck than the federal law does, but never less.

For comparison, ordinary creditor garnishments are capped far lower, at 25 percent of disposable earnings. Support gets the widest channel federal law allows.

The federal tier depends on exactly two facts. First: is the worker currently supporting another spouse or dependent child besides those in the order? If yes, the base cap is 50 percent. If no, it is 60 percent.

Second: does the garnishment enforce arrears older than 12 weeks? If yes, add 5 points. So a parent supporting a second family with old arrears can lose up to 55 percent, and a parent with no other dependents and old arrears up to 65 percent.

Florida shows how arrears collection rides these caps in practice: its income deduction orders add 20 percent of the current support amount on top of each payment to retire delinquencies, all still boxed inside the CCPA ceiling.

The percentages never apply to gross pay. Disposable earnings means pay left after deductions required by law: federal, state, and local taxes, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory state unemployment contributions, and mandatory retirement withholdings.

Voluntary deductions do not reduce disposable earnings. Health insurance premiums, union dues, and 401(k) contributions come out of the worker’s protected share, not off the top. A paycheck can therefore feel far smaller than the 50 percent math suggests, because voluntary deductions and the support withholding stack.

Earnings is read broadly too: wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, and periodic pension payments are all garnishable compensation under the Department of Labor’s guidance, and lump sums can be as well.

The employer’s role is mechanical, not discretionary. Once served with an income withholding order, the employer computes disposable earnings for the pay period, applies the ordered amount up to the governing cap, and remits to the state disbursement unit. Michigan’s statute is explicit that its 50 percent ceiling covers everything support-related combined, so an employer holding a current-support order plus an arrears order does not stack them past the cap.

Our state rule data shows 13 of the 51 jurisdictions we cover applying a limit below the federal ceiling in at least some support cases: Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia. The table below lists every state, with its rule and source.

Texas caps support withholding at a flat 50 percent of disposable earnings. Michigan caps the total of all support-related withholding, current support, arrears, and fees combined, at 50 percent. California’s default cap for support withholding is also 50 percent.

North Carolina goes lowest for a single order: 40 percent of disposable income, rising to 45 or 50 percent only when multiple orders compete, depending on whether the worker supports other dependents. West Virginia uses 40 or 50 percent, rising to 45 or 55 percent when part of the withholding is for arrears older than 12 weeks.

Some lower limits apply only in certain proceedings. Utah’s 50 percent ceiling covers court writs of garnishment for support judgments, while its agency income withholding can reach the federal maximum. Iowa’s 50 percent applies to a single support withholding; multiple orders can reach the federal tiers.

Most other states adopt the federal 50/55/60/65 matrix, either by referencing the CCPA directly or by mirroring its numbers in state law, as New York does in CPLR 5241.

Each of our garnishment calculators applies the stricter of the federal and state cap for its state and shows which limit is binding on your numbers.