Wage Garnishment in Florida

In Florida, a creditor collecting an ordinary debt cannot garnish wages without first suing the debtor and winning a court judgment. Even with a judgment, the creditor can take only the lesser of 25% of weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.

Florida law completely exempts the wages of a head of household: a person providing more than half the financial support for a child or other dependent. Wages above $750 per week can be garnished only if the debtor waived the exemption in writing. A garnishment can be stopped three ways: a claim of exemption filed within 20 days of the garnishment notice, a negotiated payment arrangement, or bankruptcy.

How Does Wage Garnishment Work in Florida?

A creditor cannot garnish wages without first winning a court judgment. Any creditor holding a Florida judgment can then garnish wages, whether the creditor is a credit card issuer, a hospital, or a former business partner. Once the judgment is entered, the creditor files a Motion for Continuing Writ of Garnishment under § 77.0305. The clerk issues the writ, and the creditor arranges service on the debtor’s employer. The exceptions are the IRS, federal agencies collecting federal debts, and child support and alimony orders, which reach wages without a collection lawsuit.

Once the employer receives the writ, withholding begins immediately. The employer files an answer with the court within 20 days confirming the debtor’s employment status, pay frequency, and current earnings. The creditor must mail the debtor a copy of the writ, the motion, and a Notice to Defendant with a Claim of Exemption form. The mailing deadline is five business days after issuance or three business days after service on the employer, whichever is later. Florida’s writ of garnishment procedures are strictly construed, and a creditor who misses any deadline risks having the writ dissolved.

A continuing writ remains in effect until the judgment is paid in full, the debtor’s employment with the garnished employer ends, or a court orders the garnishment dissolved. The creditor does not need to file new writs for each pay period.

How Much of a Paycheck Can Be Garnished?

Federal law caps wage garnishment at the lesser of two amounts: 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. The governing statute is 15 U.S.C. § 1673.

Disposable earnings are what remain after the employer deducts amounts required by law—federal and state income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Voluntary deductions like health insurance premiums, 401(k) contributions, and union dues are not subtracted when calculating disposable earnings.

At 30 times the current federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour), the protected weekly floor is $217.50. A debtor earning $217.50 or less per week in disposable income cannot have any wages garnished. For example, suppose a person’s disposable earnings are $700 a week. Twenty-five percent of that is $175, and the amount above the $217.50 floor is $482.50, so the creditor can garnish $175, the smaller figure. Florida follows these federal limits for most consumer debts.

What Is the Head of Household Exemption?

Florida’s head of household exemption can exempt a qualifying debtor’s entire earnings from wage garnishment. There is no dollar cap. A head of household earning $2,000 per week receives the same protection as one earning $500 per week, as long as the exemption has not been waived in writing. A debtor who is not a head of household is garnished under the federal limits no matter what the debtor earns; the statute’s $750 weekly figure does not apply to that debtor.

To qualify, a debtor must provide more than half the financial support for a child or other dependent. The dependent does not need to be a minor child. A debtor supporting an elderly parent, a disabled adult child, or a non-working spouse can qualify. The “dependent” definition is broader than the IRS version used for tax filing, so a debtor may qualify for the head of household exemption even without claiming that person as a tax dependent.

Both spouses in a marriage cannot simultaneously claim head of household status for the same dependents. If both spouses work and both face garnishment, only the spouse who provides the majority of financial support for the household’s dependents can assert the exemption. The other spouse’s wages remain subject to garnishment under the standard federal limits. An exception exists when each spouse separately supports different dependents in different households, such as children from prior marriages living in separate homes.

How to Claim the Head of Household Exemption

A debtor claims the head of household exemption by filing a Claim of Exemption no later than 20 days after the garnishment notice arrives. The Claim of Exemption and Request for Hearing form comes with the notice; the debtor completes it, has it notarized, files it, and serves copies on the creditor and the employer. The court does not apply the exemption on its own, and a debtor who lets the 20 days pass risks losing it entirely.

If the creditor does not contest the claim within 8 business days of hand delivery or 14 business days of mailing, the writ is automatically dissolved and the employer must stop withholding. If the creditor does contest the exemption, the court schedules an evidentiary hearing where the debtor must prove qualification through tax returns, pay stubs, W-2 statements, and evidence of financial support for the dependent.

In practice, many creditor attorneys will voluntarily dissolve a wage garnishment after reviewing documentation that clearly supports the head of household claim. Documentation served with the claim reaches the creditor’s attorney inside the objection window, and an unopposed claim dissolves the writ without a hearing.

Can the Head of Household Exemption Be Waived?

The head of household exemption can be waived in writing, and many consumer loan agreements and credit card contracts include a waiver. If the debtor signed a waiver, the creditor can garnish wages above $750 per week even though the debtor supports dependents. Even after a valid waiver, Section 222.11(2)(b) still caps the garnishment at the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act limit, meaning 25% of disposable earnings or the amount exceeding 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less.

A head of household whose disposable earnings are $750 a week or less is fully exempt, and no waiver changes that: the waiver provision applies only to earnings above $750. Florida courts have upheld waivers when they are knowing and voluntary.

The waiver must appear in a separate document attached to the loan agreement, written in the same language as the agreement, in type no smaller than 14 points. It must also follow the statute’s prescribed form, an all-capitals notice stating that all or part of the signer’s income is exempt from garnishment under Florida law and that signing waives the protection. A waiver missing any of these can be challenged as invalid.

How Long After a Judgment Can Wages Be Garnished?

A Florida judgment is enforceable for 20 years, and a judgment creditor can start a wage garnishment at any point in that window. Florida has no procedure for renewing a judgment; a creditor who wants to collect past the 20-year mark must sue on the judgment before it expires and obtain a new one. Statutory interest accrues on the unpaid balance from the day the judgment is entered, so a garnishment that starts late in the 20-year period collects years of accrued interest as well as the original amount.

What Types of Income Count as Wages?

Florida’s continuing writ applies only to earnings an employer pays an employee as compensation for personal labor or services. This includes salary, hourly wages, bonuses, commissions, overtime pay, and similar employment compensation.

Payments to independent contractors are not wages for purposes of the continuing writ. A creditor cannot obtain a continuing writ against payments owed to a debtor working as an independent contractor. Instead, the creditor must serve a separate, one-time writ of garnishment each time it believes money is owed to the contractor. Continuing writs are limited to wages, salary, and commissions. A creditor likewise cannot obtain a continuing writ against rents, accounts receivable, or other non-wage payments.

Contractor pay can still qualify as exempt head of household earnings, because the exemption statute covers compensation for personal services whether it is called wages, salary, commission, or bonus. A contractor paid a set fee or commission by a third party for personal work has the strongest claim.

In In re Manning, 163 B.R. 380 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 1994), a debtor who ran his family’s construction company and set his own pay claimed the exemption. The court denied it: an owner qualifies only if he receives regular compensation under an arm’s-length employment agreement, paid regardless of the business’s cash flow. An owner who draws money from the business whenever convenient, rather than receiving a fixed salary, is unlikely to qualify.

What Happens When Exempt Wages Are Deposited into a Bank Account?

Exempt wages do not lose their protected status when deposited into a bank account. Section 222.11(3) keeps head of household wages exempt from garnishment for six months following deposit, provided the debtor can trace the funds to exempt earnings.

The debtor carries the burden of proving that the money in the account came from exempt wages. The statute says commingling exempt wages with other funds does not by itself defeat the exemption, but a mixed account means reconstructing every deposit and withdrawal at the hearing. A dedicated wage account that receives only payroll deposits makes the trace simple: the bank statement shows payroll deposits and nothing else.

If a creditor serves a writ of garnishment on a bank holding the debtor’s deposited wages, the bank will freeze the account. The debtor must then file a Claim of Exemption and demonstrate that the frozen funds are traceable to exempt wages. The proof is pay stubs matched to the deposits on the bank statements. The six-month clock runs separately for each deposit, so wages deposited more than six months before the writ have lost the exemption even if last week’s paycheck is still protected.

Which Debts Bypass Normal Garnishment Limits?

Four kinds of debt are collected outside Florida’s normal garnishment limits: federal taxes, child support and alimony, federal student loans, and other debts owed to federal agencies. None of the four requires the creditor to sue on the debt and win a money judgment first, so these garnishments arrive without the lawsuit that precedes an ordinary writ.

For federal taxes, the IRS levies wages administratively. It sets an exempt amount based on the debtor’s filing status and number of dependents, and everything above that amount can be levied.

Child support and alimony are withheld under an income deduction order entered in the support case itself. The order can take up to 50% of disposable earnings if the debtor is currently supporting another spouse or child, or up to 60% if the debtor is not. An additional 5% can be garnished if the debtor is more than 12 weeks behind on payments.

The Department of Education or a guaranty agency can garnish up to 15% of disposable earnings on a defaulted federal student loan after 30 days’ notice and an opportunity to request a hearing.

Federal agencies beyond the IRS and student loan servicers also have administrative garnishment power. The Small Business Administration and similar agencies can garnish up to 15% of a debtor’s disposable earnings to collect federal debts. These administrative garnishments are federal remedies not governed by state law. The head of household exemption does not apply, and no state exemption can block them.

Can an Out-of-State Creditor Garnish Florida Wages?

Yes, an out-of-state creditor can garnish Florida wages, but the route depends on which court issues the writ. A creditor holding another state’s judgment must first domesticate it in Florida. Under Florida’s Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, the creditor records a certified copy of the judgment and an affidavit listing both parties’ addresses at a Florida circuit court clerk’s office.

The clerk mails notice of the recording to the debtor, and no writ can issue until 30 days after that mailing. The judgment is then enforced under Florida’s garnishment law like any Florida judgment, and the head of household exemption applies.

A writ issued by another state’s court and served on an employer there is governed by that state’s law: its own garnishment procedure and, in most cases, its own exemption law. A Florida resident whose out-of-state employer is served through its office in that state can be garnished under that state’s rules, and Florida’s head of household exemption does not follow the wages there. Any challenge to that writ is filed in the court that issued it.

How to Stop a Wage Garnishment in Florida

A claim of exemption filed within 20 days of the garnishment notice can stop a wage garnishment outright. Unless the creditor objects within 8 business days after hand delivery or 14 business days after mailing, the clerk dissolves the writ automatically. A debtor who qualifies as head of household or whose garnished funds include exempt income such as Social Security or disability payments can dissolve the writ entirely by proving the exemption. A contested claim goes to a hearing.

The writ itself can be attacked without claiming any exemption. Florida’s garnishment statutes are strictly construed, and creditors frequently make errors in the notice, timing, or documentation requirements. A single missed deadline or improperly served notice can be grounds to dissolve the writ.

Negotiating directly with the creditor can end a wage garnishment: creditors will often agree to dissolve the writ in exchange for a payment plan. Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that halts all collection activity including wage garnishment, though bankruptcy carries long-term consequences.

The garnishment statute has no procedure for a late exemption claim. In Zivitz v. Zivitz, 16 So. 3d 841 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), a debtor who first raised the homestead exemption for garnished sale proceeds after the 20 days had run lost it: the court held the deadline mandatory and struck the late filing. A Rule 1.540 motion for relief from the garnishment judgment is the remaining route. In Zivitz, the trial court denied that motion because the debtor showed no excusable neglect, and the appellate court found no abuse of discretion; the debtor must show excusable neglect, a meritorious defense, and due diligence.

Outside bankruptcy, stopping the wage garnishment leaves the judgment in place. The creditor can still garnish bank accounts, record a lien against non-homestead real estate, and levy on other non-exempt property. What else the judgment can reach depends on Florida’s other asset protection rules: the homestead exemption, retirement account exemptions, and property held as tenants by the entirety.

What Are an Employer’s Obligations?

An employer served with a continuing writ, called the garnishee, must withhold the garnishable amount from each paycheck and pay it to the creditor until the judgment is satisfied or the writ is dissolved. An employer that ignores the writ can be held liable for the full amount of the debt.

Florida law lets the employer keep a processing fee out of the debtor’s pay: at most $5 for the first deduction and $2 for each later one. Federal law under 15 U.S.C. § 1674 prohibits an employer from firing an employee solely because the employee’s wages are subject to garnishment for a single debt. This protection does not extend to multiple garnishments—an employee whose wages are subject to writs from two or more creditors has no federal protection against termination.