To estimate your Arizona wage garnishment, run two calculations on your weekly disposable earnings and use the smaller result: 10% of those earnings, or the amount by which they exceed $909 (which is 60 times Arizona’s 2026 minimum wage of $15.15 per hour). Whichever number is lower is the most a consumer-debt creditor can take from that paycheck. If your weekly disposable earnings are $909 or less, nothing can be garnished for ordinary consumer debt.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1131 – Definition; Wages; Salary; Compensation
Arizona’s cap is far more protective than the federal baseline. Federal law allows up to 25% of disposable earnings and only exempts the first $217.50 per week.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Arizona’s own statute overrides that with a 10% cap and a $909 floor, and employers must apply whichever rule leaves you with more.
Start With Your Disposable Earnings, Not Take-Home Pay
The number the garnishment math runs on is your disposable earnings. That is not your gross pay and not your take-home pay. It is your gross pay minus only the deductions required by law: federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and any mandatory local tax withholding.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
Voluntary deductions do not count. Your 401(k) contribution, health insurance premiums, life insurance, union dues, and charitable giving all stay in the calculation base. On your pay stub, ignore those lines. Start with gross pay, subtract only mandatory government withholdings, and that figure is what the garnishment formula uses.
Regular salary, bonuses, and commissions are all earnings subject to garnishment. Tips are generally excluded. An irregular payment such as a quarterly bonus folds into the disposable earnings for the pay period it arrives in, and the same limits apply to that larger paycheck.
The Two Numbers You Compare
Arizona’s rule has two parts, and the one that protects you more controls.
The first part is a percentage cap. A creditor can take no more than 10% of your disposable earnings for the workweek. On $1,200 of weekly disposable earnings, that limit is $120.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1131 – Definition; Wages; Salary; Compensation
The second part is a dollar floor. Earnings up to 60 times the applicable minimum hourly wage are completely exempt. Arizona uses whichever minimum wage is highest among federal, state, or local rates. The state rate of $15.15 beats the federal $7.25, so the floor is 60 × $15.15 = $909 per week. Only the portion of your disposable earnings above $909 is reachable.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1131 – Definition; Wages; Salary; Compensation
Your employer calculates both and withholds the lower of the two. That is the whole formula.
Worked Examples at 2026 Rates
Weekly Disposable Earnings of $850
Ten percent of $850 is $85. The floor calculation: $850 minus $909 is negative, meaning your earnings never exceed the exempt amount. The creditor gets nothing. Anyone earning $909 or less in weekly disposable pay is fully protected from consumer-debt garnishment in Arizona.
Weekly Disposable Earnings of $1,000
Ten percent of $1,000 is $100. The floor calculation: $1,000 minus $909 is $91. The lower figure is $91, so your employer withholds $91 that week.
Weekly Disposable Earnings of $1,500
Ten percent of $1,500 is $150. The floor calculation: $1,500 minus $909 is $591. The lower figure is $150, so the 10% cap controls and your employer withholds $150.
A pattern shows up across these examples. The $909 floor matters most for lower earners, while the 10% cap takes over for higher earners. The crossover sits near $1,010 in weekly disposable earnings; above that, the percentage cap is almost always the controlling number.
Adjusting for Bi-Weekly, Semi-Monthly, or Monthly Pay
If you are paid every two weeks, the exempt floor doubles to 120 times the minimum wage: 120 × $15.15 = $1,818. The 10% cap applies to the full two-week disposable earnings figure. For semi-monthly or monthly pay, scale the floor the same way; the underlying principle is 60 times the minimum wage per workweek covered by the paycheck.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1131 – Definition; Wages; Salary; Compensation
The math itself does not change. You still calculate 10% of the pay-period disposable earnings, subtract the scaled floor from those earnings, and withhold whichever result is smaller.
When These Limits Do Not Apply
The 10% cap and $909 floor are for ordinary consumer debts: credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and similar judgments. Several other categories of debt use different, less protective rules, and plugging those into the standard formula will give you the wrong number.
Child Support and Spousal Maintenance
For a support order, Arizona exempts half of your disposable earnings for the pay period, meaning the other half can be garnished. That is a 50% rate.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1131 – Definition; Wages; Salary; Compensation Federal law allows up to 60% if you are not currently supporting another spouse or dependent child, plus an additional 5% if you are more than 12 weeks behind on payments.3U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act The exact amount in a support case depends on the terms of the court order.
Defaulted Federal Student Loans
The U.S. Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of your disposable pay for defaulted federal student loans without going to court first. Administrative garnishment resumed in January 2026 after a multi-year pause.4Federal Student Aid. Collections on Defaulted Loans You must receive written notice and an opportunity to enter a repayment plan or request a hearing before withholding begins. The 15% rate does not use Arizona’s minimum wage floor.
Federal Tax Levies
IRS wage levies use their own formula based on filing status, number of dependents, and the standard deduction rather than any percentage. For 2026, a single filer paid weekly with three dependents keeps about $615 per week; a married joint filer paid bi-weekly with two dependents keeps about $1,646.5Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy on Wages, Salary, and Other Income Anything above the exempt amount goes to the IRS.
If Your Employer’s Withholding Does Not Match the Formula
Run the numbers against your pay stub. If the withholding is higher than the formula allows, you have 10 days after you receive the garnishee’s answer or the nonexempt earnings statement to object in writing. Miss that window without good cause, and you waive the hearing for that pay period.6Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 12-1598.16 – Forms
You file a request-for-hearing form, available from the Arizona courts self-service center, and deliver copies to both the creditor and your employer. There is no filing fee. The court must set your hearing within 10 days of receiving the request, and no later than 15 days unless you ask for more time.7Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 12-1580 – Objection to Garnishment or Answer; Hearing
Grounds that fit the calculation question include a miscalculated 10% or floor amount, a judgment that has already been paid, an active payment plan with the creditor, a bankruptcy discharge of the underlying debt, or improper service of the writ. The hearing will not revisit whether the original debt was valid; by garnishment stage, the creditor already holds a judgment.
If even the correctly calculated 10% leaves you unable to cover basic necessities, Arizona permits the court to reduce the withholding to as low as 5% of disposable earnings for hardship.8Arizona Judicial Branch. Garnishment Forms Bring documentation of your monthly income and expenses; the court decides case by case.