New Washington State Garnishment Laws: Wage and Bank Account Exemptions

Washington state garnishment laws changed on July 1, 2025, and the biggest shift is that your protections now depend on the type of debt the creditor is collecting. Under Senate Bill 5651, codified as Chapter 391 of the 2025 Laws, a tiered system replaced the old one-size approach.¹ General judgment debts, consumer debts, private student loans, and spousal maintenance each carry their own wage and bank account exemption thresholds. Because several of those thresholds are tied to Washington’s minimum wage, which rises to $17.13 per hour in 2026, the dollar figures shift automatically each January.²

How Much of Your Wages Are Protected

The statute now sets four separate formulas. In every case, you keep whichever amount is greater.³

General debts: 35 times the federal minimum hourly wage, or 75% of disposable earnings.
Consumer debt: 35 times the Washington state minimum hourly wage, or 80% of disposable earnings.
Private student loan debt: 50 times the highest minimum wage in the state, or 85% of disposable earnings.
Spousal maintenance: 50% of disposable earnings.

The private student loan tier is the most protective by a wide margin. Swapping the federal minimum wage for the state figure, then raising both the multiplier and the percentage floor, means creditors on those debts can reach far less of a paycheck than under the old rules.

What Those Formulas Look Like in 2026

The federal minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour. Washington’s is $17.13.² Plugging those numbers in:

General debts protect at least $253.75 per week (35 × $7.25), or 75% of disposable earnings if that’s higher. On $600 in weekly disposable earnings, 75% is $450, so a creditor can take at most $150.
Consumer debt protects at least $599.55 per week (35 × $17.13), or 80% of disposable earnings. On that same $600 paycheck, the creditor can reach only about 45 cents. Someone earning around $600 weekly is effectively out of reach for consumer debt.
Private student loan debt protects at least $856.50 per week (50 × $17.13), or 85% of disposable earnings. Weekly disposable earnings need to clear roughly $850 before any garnishment starts.³

These floors move up automatically when Washington’s minimum wage rises each January. You don’t have to file anything for that to happen.

Disposable Earnings Are Not the Same as Take-Home Pay

The percentage in each formula applies to disposable earnings, which is a narrower category than what hits your bank account. Disposable earnings means gross pay minus legally required deductions: federal, state, and local income taxes, your share of Social Security and Medicare, and any state-mandated retirement contributions.⁴

Voluntary deductions don’t count. Health insurance premiums, union dues, 401(k) contributions you elected, charitable giving, payroll advances — none of them reduce your disposable earnings for garnishment math. That distinction matters because most people compare a garnishment to their actual take-home number. Disposable earnings are usually higher than take-home pay, which means the percentage floor shields more than you might assume.

Bank Account Exemptions

SB 5651 applied the same tiered logic to bank accounts. Different amounts are automatically protected depending on the debt:⁵

General debts: $500 protected across all your bank accounts combined.
Consumer debt: $2,000 protected.
Private student loan debt: up to $2,500 exempt, with $1,000 automatically protected. The remaining $1,500 may require a filed claim.

Married couples and domestic partners in a single household each get their own exemption, which can effectively double the shielded amount on community debts.⁵ The automatic portion is the piece your bank should hold back without any paperwork from you. Anything above that automatic figure has to be claimed.

Income Sources That Stay Off-Limits

Some income doesn’t fit into the tier system at all because federal or state law puts it out of reach for most creditors. Social Security retirement and disability benefits are generally exempt, with narrow exceptions for child support, alimony, and federal tax debts.⁶ Unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation benefits are also protected.

Washington law explicitly exempts retirement accounts, including IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and accounts in the state retirement systems named in the statute. The 2025 changes made those protections more visible on the standard garnishment notices, which cuts down on confusion when a bank freezes an account holding a Social Security deposit or a retirement rollover.

How to Claim an Exemption

Automatic protections cover part of your bank account, but anything else — wages you believe are over-garnished, deposits traceable to Social Security, extra bank account funds you’re entitled to under the student loan tier — requires a filed claim. The timeline is short and strictly enforced.

When a creditor garnishes wages or a bank account, you’re entitled to receive a Notice of Garnishment along with an exemption claim form.⁷ You have 28 days from the date on the writ to deliver your completed claim to the court clerk and mail a copy to the creditor or their attorney. If the writ was served on the garnishee more than seven days after its date, you get 21 days from the date of service on the garnishee instead.⁸

Missing the deadline is where most people lose. Respond the week you receive the notice. You may need pay stubs, bank statements showing where deposits came from, or proof that funds trace to exempt sources, and gathering that takes time.

What Happens After You File

Once your claim reaches the creditor, one of two things follows. If the creditor doesn’t object, the court must order the garnishee to release the exempt funds within 10 days.⁷ If the creditor does object, they must file a written statement and set a hearing within 14 days of receiving your claim.⁸

Show up to the hearing. Not appearing almost always ends the claim regardless of the underlying facts. Bring pay stubs, bank statements tracing deposits to exempt sources, records of household expenses, and anything else that proves the funds are protected. The judge decides whether the property qualifies as exempt or whether you need it for basic support.

Debts That Follow Different Rules

The tier system covers private creditors. Government-backed collections operate under separate rules that override state exemptions.

Child support: federal law permits garnishment of up to 50% of disposable earnings if you support a second family, or 60% if you don’t, with an added 5 percentage points if you’re 12 or more weeks behind, up to a 65% maximum.⁹
Federal tax levies: the IRS levies wages using tables in IRS Publication 1494, tied to filing status and dependents. The exempt amount is typically lower than what state garnishment law protects.
Federal student loans: the U.S. Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of disposable pay through administrative wage garnishment, without a court judgment. That authority resumed in early 2026 for borrowers in default after a pause of several years.

Federal law also sets a floor for private garnishments: the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, currently $217.50 per week.¹⁰ Washington’s consumer and student loan tiers are more protective, so the state numbers control. Federal law also bars an employer from firing you because your wages were garnished for any single debt, though that protection disappears once garnishments for two or more separate debts arrive.⁴

What to Do If You’ve Been Served

Read the notice the day it arrives and identify the debt category, because your protection depends on it. Consumer debt, private student loans, and general judgments each shield different amounts, and applying the wrong tier will cost you money.

File the exemption claim well before day 28. Pull together pay stubs, bank statements, and proof that any funds in your account came from Social Security, retirement, or other protected sources. If a hearing is scheduled, attend it with the documentation in hand.

If your employer is deducting too much, raise it with them in writing first. Payroll errors often come from applying the federal floor when Washington’s consumer or student loan tier should govern. Pointing your employer to RCW 6.27.150 and the correct category resolves many of these situations without a court fight.³

1
Washington State Legislature. SB 5651 Bill Summary
2
Washington Department of Labor and Industries. 2026 Minimum Wage Announcement
3
Washington State Legislature. RCW 6.27.150 Exemption of Earnings – Amount
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
5
Washington State Legislature. RCW 6.15.010 Exempt Property
6
Social Security Administration. SSR 79-4 Levy and Garnishment of Benefits
7
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 6.27 RCW Garnishment
8
Washington State Legislature. RCW 6.27.160 Claiming Exemptions – Form – Hearing – Attorneys
9
Administration for Children and Families. Is There a Limit to the Amount of Money That Can Be Taken From My Paycheck for Child Support
10
eCFR. Part 870 Restriction on Garnishment