Wage Garnishment in Washington: What the Law Says and What Bankruptcy Changes

How much of your pay can be garnished in Washington?

Washington states its wage rule as an exempt share your employer must pay you, not as the share a creditor takes. For most judgments, the exempt amount for each week of earnings is the greatest of 35 times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect when the earnings are payable, or 75 percent of disposable earnings (RCW 6.27.150). Two debt categories have their own, more protective shares, and a spousal maintenance order has its own rule — the table below sets them out. Disposable earnings means what is left of your pay after deductions required by law are withheld, which is not the same as what is left after your rent and groceries (RCW 6.27.010). These exemptions apply whether you are paid weekly, monthly, or at other intervals, and whether earnings are due for one week, part of a week, or longer (RCW 6.27.150). Your employer calculates and pays the exempt amount as directed in the writ and answer.

What do Washington statutes require of creditors and courts?

Most wage garnishments follow a judgment: the clerk of the court, or in district court the judgment creditor's attorney, issues the writ for a creditor holding a judgment that is wholly or partially unsatisfied (RCW 6.27.020). A prejudgment writ aimed at earnings requires one of three statutory grounds — that the defendant is not a resident or is about to move from the state, has concealed or absented himself or herself so ordinary process cannot be served, or has removed or is about to remove property from the state with intent to delay or defraud creditors (RCW 6.26.010). The court generally issues such a writ only after notice and an opportunity for a hearing at which the plaintiff establishes the probable validity of the claim and probable cause for the ground; narrow exceptions allow an ex parte writ followed by prompt notice and an early hearing (RCW 6.26.060). A bond is required before a prejudgment writ issues (RCW 6.26.020).

How long can a continuing lien keep taking money from your paycheck?

A writ for a continuing lien on earnings reaches more than one paycheck. The amount stated on the writ becomes a lien on nonexempt earnings due at the writ's effective date and continues as to later nonexempt earnings until the total subject to the lien equals that amount, or until the expiration of the employer's payroll period ending on or before 60 days after the effective date, whichever happens first (RCW 6.27.350). It can end sooner — if the employment relationship ends, if the underlying judgment is vacated, modified, or satisfied in full, or if the writ is dismissed. The effective date is the date of service if no writ was previously served; otherwise it is the date the earlier writ or writs terminate (RCW 6.27.105). A continuing lien may not be issued for a child support judgment or order; that withholding is sought under chapter 26.18 RCW and takes priority over a garnishment lien (RCW 6.27.330, RCW 6.27.360).

Which income is exempt from garnishment under Washington law?

Earnings includes wages, salary, commission, bonus, and periodic pension payments (RCW 6.27.010). Two protections work differently: the exemption in RCW 6.27.150 is what your employer must pay you out of earnings, while money already deposited is reached under separate rules, because earnings themselves are not exempt under the personal property statute (RCW 6.15.010). For applicable accounts, the bank must release funds up to automatic amounts, with separate tiers for ordinary debts, consumer debt, and private student loan debt, measured against the combined balances in all your accounts, and doubled where the bank has documentation that the funds are community property of spouses or domestic partners (RCW 6.27.100). An account holding only benefits — Social Security, SSI, veterans' benefits, unemployment compensation — may be claimed as fully exempt, and may be partially exempt where other deposits were mixed in (RCW 6.27.140).

Which statutory protections may matter when contesting a garnishment?

On or before the day the writ is served on the garnishee, the creditor must mail you, by certified mail to your last known post office address, a copy of the writ and the supporting affidavit. The alternative is personal service of those papers on or before that day or within two days after (RCW 6.27.130). Those requirements are not jurisdictional, so a defect is not automatically fatal. No disbursement order or judgment against the garnishee may be entered without the return or affidavit of service or mailing on file, and on a prompt motion supported by an affidavit showing substantial injury from a failure to mail or serve, the court may in its discretion set the garnishment aside and award damages. You bear the burden of proving any claimed exemption, including documenting the source and amount of claimed exempt funds (RCW 6.27.160).

How does filing bankruptcy affect a Washington garnishment?

A voluntary petition commences the case and constitutes an order for relief (11 U.S.C. § 301). Section 362(a) operates as a stay of enforcement against the debtor or estate property of a judgment obtained before the case and of any act to collect a prepetition claim. Its reach over proceedings is narrower: it covers a judicial or administrative action against the debtor that was or could have been commenced before filing, or that seeks to recover a prepetition claim, not every proceeding. The stay arises on filing by operation of the statute, not from notice or a further order. Subsection (b)(2)(C) excepts withholding of income for payment of a domestic support obligation. On a party in interest's request, after notice and a hearing, the court may grant relief from the stay for cause; prior dismissed cases limit it, as the FAQs describe (11 U.S.C. § 362).

Which exemption list applies if you file while living in Washington?

Section 522(b) lets an individual debtor exempt the property listed in paragraph (2) or, in the alternative, paragraph (3) — not both. Paragraph (2) is the federal list in subsection (d), available unless the state law applicable to the debtor under paragraph (3)(A) specifically does not authorize it. Paragraph (3) covers property exempt under federal law other than subsection (d), qualifying retirement funds, and the state or local law applicable on the filing date where your domicile has been located for the 730 days immediately preceding filing. If your domicile was not in a single state for that 730-day period, the applicable law is that of the place where your domicile was located for the 180 days immediately preceding those 730 days, or for a longer portion of that 180-day period than in any other place. If that domicile rule leaves you ineligible for any exemption, you may elect the subsection (d) list (11 U.S.C. § 522).

What should you ask a lawyer about a Washington garnishment?

Washington's statutes answer some questions and leave others to the facts of your case. Concrete things worth taking to a lawyer or a legal aid intake: which exemption tier the writ is using, since its caption is supposed to say when the judgment is for consumer debt or private student loan debt (RCW 6.27.105); whether the figures on your employer's answer used the right disposable-earnings calculation; whether the writ is a continuing lien and what its effective date is; whether the mailing and claim-form requirements were met; what the deadline is to file your exemption claim in your specific case, counted from the date on the writ or from service on your employer; whether a bankruptcy filing would reach this debt and what prior dismissed cases would do to the stay; and which exemption list would apply to you under the domicile rule. Our court finder and roadmap can help you prepare for that conversation.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to claim an exemption in Washington?

Deliver your claim declaration to the clerk or mail it first class, with a copy mailed first class to the plaintiff or plaintiff's attorney at the writ's address, no later than 28 days after the date on the writ. If service on the garnishee is delayed more than seven days after the writ's date, the time runs 21 days from that service. A plaintiff objecting must send a declaration and hearing notice within seven days of receiving your claim, with the hearing no later than 14 days after receipt. If it does not object, it must obtain and deliver a release order, or its attorney an authorization to release, within ten days of receiving the claim (RCW 6.27.160). Keep documentation of the funds' source and amount.

Is the 20-day deadline in the papers my deadline?

It depends which notice you are reading. The writ commands your employer or bank to answer within twenty days after service (RCW 6.27.070, RCW 6.27.190). Separately, either the plaintiff or the defendant may controvert the garnishee's answer by affidavit within twenty days after it is filed, so one 20-day window can be yours (RCW 6.27.210). Neither is the deadline for your exemption claim (RCW 6.27.160).

Does federal law also limit how much can be taken?

For ordinary garnishments, federal law caps the part of disposable earnings garnished in any workweek at the lesser of 25 percent, or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect when the earnings are payable (15 U.S.C. § 1673). The ordinary cap excludes specified support orders, orders of a United States court with jurisdiction over chapter 13 cases, and state or federal tax debts, but support orders carry their own percentage limits under subsection (b)(2), so federal restrictions are not lifted. More limiting state law is not displaced (15 U.S.C. § 1677).

Can my employer fire me because of a garnishment?

Washington law bars an employer from discharging an employee because a creditor has subjected or attempted to subject unpaid earnings to a writ, but that provision does not apply if garnishments on three or more separate indebtednesses are served on the employer within any period of twelve consecutive months (RCW 6.27.170). Federal law separately bars discharge by reason of garnishment for any one indebtedness, with penalties for a willful violation (15 U.S.C. § 1674). Those are job-protection rules, not remedies for money withheld in error.

What if a bankruptcy case of mine was dismissed in the past year?

If a single or joint case is filed by or against you as an individual under chapter 7, 11, or 13, and a single or joint case of yours was pending within the preceding 1-year period but was dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after a section 707(b) dismissal — the stay with respect to any action taken regarding a debt, property securing that debt, or a lease terminates with respect to the debtor on the 30th day after the later filing. On a party in interest's motion, and after notice and a hearing completed before that 30-day period expires, the court may extend the stay as to any or all creditors, only if the party demonstrates that the later filing is in good faith as to the creditors to be stayed. An extension is not automatic (11 U.S.C. § 362).

What if two or more of my cases were dismissed in the past year?

Then the stay does not go into effect upon the later filing. That rule applies where a single or joint case is filed by or against you as an individual and two or more single or joint cases of yours were pending within the previous year but were dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after a section 707(b) dismissal. Within 30 days after the later filing, a party in interest may request a stay, which the court may impose as to any or all creditors, after notice and a hearing, only on a showing that the filing is in good faith as to the creditors to be stayed; an imposed stay is effective on the date the order is entered. A party in interest may also ask the court to confirm that no stay is in effect (11 U.S.C. § 362).

Sources

• RCW 6.27.150
• RCW 6.27.010
• RCW 6.27.020
• RCW 6.26.010
• RCW 6.26.020
• RCW 6.26.060
• RCW 6.27.070
• RCW 6.27.100
• RCW 6.27.105
• RCW 6.27.130
• RCW 6.27.140
• RCW 6.27.160
• RCW 6.27.170
• RCW 6.27.180
• RCW 6.27.190
• RCW 6.27.210
• RCW 6.27.330
• RCW 6.27.350
• RCW 6.27.360
• 11 U.S.C. § 301
• 11 U.S.C. § 362 · official source
• 11 U.S.C. § 522 · official source
• 15 U.S.C. § 1673
• 15 U.S.C. § 1674
• 15 U.S.C. § 1677

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