Arkansas Wage Garnishment Calculator

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Arkansas Wage Garnishment Calculator

How much an Arkansas paycheck can lose to a judgment, support order, tax levy, student loan or Chapter 13 plan. A.C.A. 16-66-101 et seq., A.C.A. 16-66-208, 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677. Estimates only.

Rules encoded (VERIFY): Arkansas follows the federal CCPA for ordinary judgments: the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50 weekly); nothing is withheld at or below that floor. Laborers and mechanics get an extra exemption under A.C.A. 16-66-208 – the first $25 per week of net wages is absolutely exempt, and 60 days of wages are exempt on a sworn claim – modeled here as a $25-per-week reduction when the checkbox is on. Support withholding follows the CCPA tiers 50 / 55 / 60 / 65% (9 CAR 5-207, A.C.A. 9-14-228). Arkansas DFA tax levies and IRS levies sit outside the 25% cap. The constitutional personal property exemption is $500 for a married person or head of family and $200 single (informational). No discharge for one garnishment (15 U.S.C. 1674).

1. Mode, county and pay date

Stack uses the order boxes in section 3.
Context only; the CCPA floor uses federal $7.25.
Sets the garnishment venue only.
Weekly caps scale by 52 / periods.
Select a county to see the venue note and the statewide protected floor.

2. Gross pay and legally required withholding

Includes bonuses and commissions.
Voluntary 401(k) excluded.
Take-home only; not in the garnishment base.

3. Order type and amounts

0 applies the statutory maximum.
Reduces the 25% aggregate room.
Shares the 25% ceiling.

4. Balance and payoff

Arkansas post-judgment interest is 10% unless the contract sets a lower rate (A.C.A. 4-57-104 – VERIFY).

How it works

  • Disposable = gross minus legally required withholding; voluntary shown separately.
  • Weekly conversion = 52 / periods (1, 2, 2.1667, 4.3333).
  • Floor = 30x $7.25 = $217.50 weekly; no withholding at or below it.
  • Consumer cap = lesser of 25% of disposable and above-floor, reduced by the $25 weekly laborer / mechanic exemption when claimed, then by support and other garnishments.
  • Support = lesser of ordered and the CCPA tier 50 / 55 / 60 / 65% of disposable.
  • Student loan = lesser of 15% disposable and above the federal floor.
  • IRS = disposable above Pub 1494 exempt; DFA = up to 25% of disposable; no 25% CCPA cap for taxes.
  • Stack applies ceilings in priority order and the 25% aggregate on non-support, non-tax orders.
  • Payoff amortizes at the entered rate and flags non-amortizing or zero-withholding cases.

Sources

  • A.C.A. 16-66-101 (execution on judgment) and 16-66-208 (laborer and mechanic wage exemption, 60 days, $25 weekly): arkansas code via findlaw and justia
  • 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677 and DOL Fact Sheet 30: dol.gov
  • Arkansas Legal Services garnishment and protected property guides (25% / 30x floor, $500 / $200 personal property exemption): a.arlawhelp.org
  • 9 CAR 5-207 (support withholding tiers) and A.C.A. 9-14-228 (CCPA limit including fee): codeofarrules.arkansas.gov
  • Arkansas DFA child support withholding (50% CCPA reference) and tax collections: dfa.arkansas.gov
  • Arkansas Department of Labor minimum wage ($11.00 since 1/1/2021): labor.arkansas.gov
  • IRS Pub 1494 and Form 668-W: irs.gov
  • 20 U.S.C. 1095a, 34 CFR 34.19: studentaid.gov
  • A.C.A. 4-57-104 (post-judgment interest): arkansas code

Test cases

TC1 Pulaski County, 2026, weekly. Gross $1,000.00; required $201.50; disposable $798.50; floor $217.50. Caps $199.63 / $581.00. Withheld $199.63, take-home $598.88, 25.00%. $6,000 at 10% clears in 31 weeks, total $6,188.38, interest $188.38.
TC2 Washington County, 2026, weekly, laborer / mechanic exemption claimed. Gross $600.00; required $110.00; disposable $490.00. CCPA cap $122.50; the $25 weekly exemption reduces it. Withheld $97.50, take-home $392.50. Without the claim the 25% cap binds at $122.50; at disposable $210.00 the floor alone bars withholding.
TC3 Benton County, 2026, biweekly. Gross $2,400.00; required $560.00; disposable $1,840.00. No second family, arrears 12 weeks or older, ceiling 65% = $1,196.00; ordered $1,200.00. Withheld $1,196.00, take-home $644.00.
TC4 Craighead County, 2026, biweekly, stack. Gross $2,400.00; required $560.00; disposable $1,840.00. Support $300.00 (ceiling $920.00); no IRS or DFA order; consumer requested $300.00 but the 25% aggregate room is $460.00 minus $300.00 = $160.00. Consumer $160.00, total $460.00, take-home $1,380.00.
TC5 Garland County, 2026, semimonthly. Gross $2,600.00; required $600.00; disposable $2,000.00. AWG 15% = $300.00; federal floor $471.25 per period leaves $1,528.75. Withheld $300.00, take-home $1,700.00. $9,000 at 0% clears in 30 periods, about 1.25 years.
Estimates only; not legal advice. All figures VERIFY, including the laborer / mechanic exemption mechanics and its $25 weekly figure, the 60-day sworn claim procedure, the CCPA tiers for support, the DFA levy cap, the $500 / $200 personal property exemption, garnishee answer deadlines and the 10% post-judgment rate. Pub 1494 estimate uses 2026 standard deductions ($16,100 / $24,150 / $32,200) plus $5,300 per dependent plus $1,600 per age-65 or blind box. Not modeled: service-date priority, contested exemption hearings, automatic stays, self-employment income, bonuses, severance, pensions, unemployment or workers compensation. Consult an Arkansas attorney or Arkansas Legal Services. Deploy: replace the block, Update, purge cache, hard refresh; verify document.getElementById(“arkansas-wage-garnishment-calculator”).getAttribute(“data-js-ready”) returns “true” with no SyntaxError.

What Is an Arkansas Wage Garnishment Calculator?

An Arkansas wage garnishment calculator estimates withholding for one pay period by calculating disposable earnings and applying the limits programmed for the selected order type. For ordinary judgments, it compares 25% of disposable earnings with earnings above a 30-times-federal-minimum-wage floor, then accounts for existing garnishments and any selected laborer exemption.

The calculator has three modes. Single Order estimates one selected order. Stacking processes five entered order categories in a priority waterfall. Payoff Timeline uses the calculated withholding as a recurring payment and estimates the number of pay periods needed to satisfy an entered balance at the selected annual interest rate.

A county selection is required. The calculator includes all 75 Arkansas counties, but county choice is used for its displayed venue information rather than to change the monetary formula.

How the Arkansas Wage Garnishment Calculation Works

The calculation begins with disposable earnings. The calculator adds federal income tax, Arkansas income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding. If those deductions exceed gross pay, the required-withholding total is capped at gross pay.

D=max⁡(G−min⁡(G,R),0)D=\max\left(G-\min(G,R),0\right)

Here, G is gross pay, R is total required withholding, and D is disposable earnings. Voluntary deductions such as health deductions, voluntary 401(k) contributions, and dues do not reduce disposable earnings in this calculator.

Pay frequency determines how weekly limits are converted to a pay period. The code uses 52 periods for weekly pay, 26 for biweekly pay, 24 for semimonthly pay, and 12 for monthly pay.

w=52Nw=\frac{52}{N}

N is the number of annual pay periods, and w is the number of weeks represented by one pay period. The calculator uses an encoded federal minimum wage of $7.25 and a 30-times weekly protected floor of $217.50.

F=30×7.25×wF=30\times7.25\times w

For a consumer or contract judgment, including the calculator's private student loan judgment option, the code calculates three main limits: 25% of disposable earnings, disposable earnings above the protected floor, and the remaining 25% room after existing support and other garnishments.

C25=0.25DC_{25}=0.25D
Cfloor=max⁡(D−F,0)C_{floor}=\max(D-F,0)
Croom=max⁡(0,0.25D−S−O)C_{room}=\max(0,0.25D-S-O)

S is Support Already Withheld and O is Other Garnishments. The smallest of those limits becomes the preliminary consumer cap.

If the Laborer or Mechanic Exemption box is checked, the calculator then subtracts $25 for each week represented by the pay period. It never allows the result to fall below zero.

Cconsumer=max⁡(min⁡(C25,Cfloor,Croom)−25w,0)C_{consumer}=\max\left(\min(C_{25},C_{floor},C_{room})-25w,0\right)

If the laborer or mechanic box is not checked, the $25-per-week reduction is zero. A positive Amount Demanded below the resulting cap further reduces the withholding. Entering zero for Amount Demanded causes the calculator to use the programmed maximum.

Support, Student Loan, Tax, and Chapter 13 Calculations

Child support and spousal support use a percentage of disposable earnings. The calculator starts at 50% when the worker supports a second spouse or child and 60% otherwise. It adds 5 percentage points when the Arrears 12 Weeks box is checked, creating the programmed 50%, 55%, 60%, or 65% tiers.

Wsupport=rDW_{support}=rD

Here, r is the applicable support rate. A smaller positive Amount Demanded reduces the result below that ceiling.

Federal student loan administrative wage garnishment uses the smaller of 15% of disposable earnings and disposable earnings above the same 30-times-federal-minimum-wage floor.

Wstudent=min⁡(0.15D,max⁡(D−F,0))W_{student}=\min\left(0.15D,\max(D-F,0)\right)

The Arkansas DFA tax levy branch calculates 25% of disposable earnings. The IRS levy branch instead subtracts an estimated exempt amount from disposable earnings and does not use the ordinary 25% consumer cap.

WDFA=0.25DW_{DFA}=0.25D

For the IRS estimate, a positive Override Exempt Amount is used directly. Otherwise, the calculator uses its built-in standard-deduction amount for the selected year and filing status, plus $5,300 per dependent and $1,600 for each age-65-or-blind box.

EIRS=SD+5300d+1600bNE_{IRS}=\frac{SD+5300d+1600b}{N}
WIRS=max⁡(D−EIRS,0)W_{IRS}=\max(D-E_{IRS},0)

For Chapter 13, the entered monthly plan payment is converted to the selected pay frequency and capped at disposable earnings.

W13=min⁡(12MN,D)W_{13}=\min\left(\frac{12M}{N},D\right)

M is the monthly Chapter 13 plan payment. A smaller positive Amount Demanded can reduce the result further.

Worked Example

Suppose a worker is paid weekly, earns $1,000 in gross pay, and has $201.50 in legally required withholding. Assume a consumer judgment, no existing support or other garnishments, no voluntary deductions, and no laborer or mechanic exemption.

Disposable earnings are $798.50. Twenty-five percent equals $199.625. The amount above the $217.50 protected floor is $581.00. With no existing garnishments, the remaining 25% room is also $199.625.

min⁡(199.625,581.00,199.625)=199.625\min(199.625,581.00,199.625)=199.625

The calculator therefore displays $199.63 withheld for the week. With no voluntary deductions, estimated take-home pay is displayed as $598.88. The withholding equals 25.00% of disposable earnings.

How to Use the Arkansas Wage Garnishment Calculator

  1. Select Single Order, Stacking, or Payoff Timeline mode.
  2. Select the pay year, one of the 75 Arkansas counties, and your pay frequency.
  3. Check the Laborer or Mechanic Exemption box if you want the calculator to apply its programmed $25-per-week reduction to an ordinary judgment calculation.
  4. Enter gross pay and the amounts for federal tax, Arkansas tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding.
  5. Enter voluntary deductions separately. They affect estimated take-home pay but not disposable earnings.
  6. Select the order type and enter an Amount Demanded if applicable. Zero generally allows the Single Order calculation to use its maximum programmed amount.
  7. Enter Support Already Withheld and Other Garnishments when they are relevant to the ordinary judgment calculation.
  8. Complete the additional support, IRS levy, or Chapter 13 fields when those sections appear.
  9. In Stacking mode, enter the separate amounts for support, IRS levy, DFA tax levy, student loan AWG, and consumer judgment.
  10. For Payoff Timeline mode, enter the Balance Owed and Interest per Year.
  11. Check the required acknowledgment and select Calculate.

The main result is Withheld per Pay Period. The results also show weekly and annual withholding, disposable earnings, the protected floor, the applicable cap, remaining garnishment room, estimated take-home pay, the percentage of disposable earnings withheld, and the factor the code identifies as controlling the result.

Important Assumptions and How to Read the Results

The pay-year selector offers 2024, 2025, and 2026. The calculator displays an Arkansas minimum wage of $11.00 for all three years, but that figure is contextual only. Its ordinary judgment and federal student loan floor uses the encoded federal rate of $7.25 instead. The selected year also changes the built-in standard-deduction values used for the IRS levy estimate.

The laborer or mechanic option affects the consumer and private student loan judgment branch through the consumer-cap formula. The calculator models it as a $25-per-week reduction. The interface also discusses a separate 60-day sworn exemption claim, but that larger exemption is not mathematically applied by the code.

Voluntary deductions affect estimated take-home pay only. Take-home is gross pay minus required withholding, voluntary deductions, and the calculated garnishment, with a minimum result of zero.

T=max⁡(G−R−V−W,0)T=\max(G-R-V-W,0)

V is voluntary deductions and W is the withholding calculated for the selected order.

Stacking mode creates a separate priority waterfall. It processes support first, followed by an IRS levy, DFA tax levy, federal student loan AWG, and consumer judgment. The primary result above that panel is still calculated from the separately selected Order Type, while the stack panel shows the results from the five stacking fields.

In the stacking formula, support is limited by the applicable 50%, 55%, 60%, or 65% ceiling and remaining disposable earnings. The IRS step is limited by the remaining amount above the estimated IRS exemption. The DFA step is limited to 25% of original disposable earnings and the remaining balance.

The federal student loan stack step uses the requested amount and its 15% or protected-floor cap calculated from original disposable earnings. The code subtracts that amount from the remaining earnings without separately limiting it to the remaining balance first. This is a calculator-specific implementation detail that can matter when earlier stacked orders have already used much of the disposable income.

The final consumer stack step uses the normal consumer cap, including any values entered in Support Already Withheld and Other Garnishments. It also applies a separate 25% non-support room that subtracts the stacked student-loan amount. That particular room calculation does not subtract the support, IRS, or DFA stack amounts from the 25% figure.

Most money inputs allow values from $0 through $10,000,000. Balance Owed allows up to $100,000,000. The APR field accepts 0% through 40%. IRS Dependents accepts 0 through 20, while Age 65 or Blind accepts 0 through 2. Gross pay must be greater than zero before the calculator will produce a result.

How the Payoff Timeline Works

Payoff mode uses the calculated withholding as the recurring payment. The calculator converts the annual percentage rate into a rate per pay period.

i=APR100Ni=\frac{APR}{100N}

When the rate is above zero and the payment exceeds one period of accrued interest, the calculator estimates the number of payments with an amortization formula and rounds up to a whole pay period.

n=⌈−ln⁡(1−BiP)ln⁡(1+i)⌉n=\left\lceil\frac{-\ln\left(1-\frac{Bi}{P}\right)}{\ln(1+i)}\right\rceil

B is the balance, P is the payment per period, and n is the number of pay periods. If the payment does not exceed one period's interest, the calculator reports that the balance never amortizes.

At 0% interest, the calculator divides the balance by the payment and rounds up. In that zero-interest branch, Total Paid is displayed as the original balance and Interest Paid is zero. With interest above zero, Total Paid is calculated as the rounded number of periods multiplied by the full periodic payment.

Stacking mode also displays the payoff panel and uses total stacked withholding as the periodic payment. Balance Owed is only required when Payoff Timeline mode itself is selected, so a stack calculation can display the payoff panel with a zero balance.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are disposable earnings in this calculator?

Disposable earnings are gross pay minus the deductions the calculator treats as legally required. These are federal income tax, Arkansas income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and other required withholding. Voluntary deductions are excluded from this calculation and are subtracted later when estimated take-home pay is calculated.

How does the $25 laborer or mechanic exemption work?

When the checkbox is selected, the calculator subtracts $25 for each week represented by the pay period from its ordinary consumer-style garnishment cap. For example, the reduction is $25 for weekly pay and $50 for biweekly pay. The code prevents the final cap from becoming negative.

Does Arkansas's $11 minimum wage change the protected floor?

No. The calculator displays its $11 Arkansas minimum wage value for context, but the programmed protected floor uses the federal value of $7.25. It multiplies that figure by 30, producing a weekly floor of $217.50, then scales the floor to the selected pay frequency.

What happens when Amount Demanded is zero?

In Single Order mode, zero generally tells the calculator to use the maximum amount produced by its formula for the selected order type. A positive demanded amount reduces withholding only when it is below that calculated amount. In the Stacking fields, zero instead means no requested order amount for that category.

How are support withholding percentages selected?

The calculator uses 50% when the Second Family box is checked and 60% when it is not. Checking Arrears 12 Weeks adds another 5 percentage points. The four possible programmed ceilings are therefore 50%, 55%, 60%, and 65% of disposable earnings.

How does the calculator estimate an IRS wage levy?

A positive Override Exempt Amount is used directly. Otherwise, the calculator combines its built-in standard deduction for the selected year and filing status with $5,300 per dependent and $1,600 for each age-65-or-blind box. It divides that annual figure by the number of pay periods and withholds disposable earnings above the result.

How accurate is the payoff estimate?

The payoff result follows the balance, APR, pay frequency, and recurring withholding used by the calculator. It assumes that payment continues at the same amount. Changes in withholding, interest, court orders, exemptions, or other payments are not automatically modeled, so the displayed timeline is an estimate rather than a guaranteed payoff date.

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