Rhode Island Wage Garnishment Calculator

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Rhode Island Wage Garnishment Calculator

Calculate wage garnishment limits under Rhode Island law. R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4, 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677. Estimates only.

Rules encoded (VERIFY): Rhode Island follows the federal CCPA limits: the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50 weekly). Child support follows CCPA tiers 50/55/60/65% per R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-18-2. Federal student loan AWG uses 15%. Federal tax debts up to 25% per CCPA. Post-judgment interest runs at 12% per annum (R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-16-10).

1. Mode, county and pay date

Stack uses the order boxes in section 3.
Rhode Island has no state income tax.
Superior Court venue.
Federal 30x test runs weekly; scaled by 52 / periods.
Select a county to see the venue note and federal floor figures.

2. Gross pay and legally required withholding

Includes bonuses and commissions.
Rhode Island has NO state income tax.
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

Rhode Island post-judgment interest: 12% per year (R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-16-10 – VERIFY).

How it works

  • Disposable = gross minus legally required withholding; voluntary shown separately.
  • Weekly conversion = 52 / periods (1, 2, 2.1667, 4.3333).
  • Rhode Island follows federal CCPA limits: lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or excess over 30× $7.25 weekly.
  • Consumer debts = up to 25% of disposable earnings per CCPA.
  • Support = lesser of ordered and CCPA tier 50/55/60/65% of disposable earnings per R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-18-2.
  • Federal tax = up to 25% of disposable earnings per CCPA.
  • Student loan AWG = lesser of 15% disposable and above the federal 30x floor.
  • Chapter 13 = the confirmed plan payment, capped at disposable earnings.
  • Stack applies precedence in order.
  • Payoff amortizes at the entered rate and flags non-amortizing or zero-withholding cases.

Sources

  • R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4 (wage garnishment limits following CCPA): rilegislature.gov
  • R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-18-2 (child support withholding): rilegislature.gov
  • R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-16-10 (post-judgment interest: 12% per year): rilegislature.gov
  • 15 U.S.C. 1671-1677 (Consumer Credit Protection Act): dol.gov
  • DOL Fact Sheet 30 (wage garnishment protections): dol.gov
  • Rhode Island Department of Revenue (revenue.ri.gov)
  • IRS Pub 1494 and Form 668-W: irs.gov
  • 20 U.S.C. 1095a, 34 CFR 34.19 (student loan AWG): studentaid.gov

Test cases

TC1 Providence County, 2026, weekly, consumer debt. Gross $1,000.00; required $200.00; disposable $800.00. 25% cap = $200.00. Withheld $200.00, take-home $600.00.
TC2 Kent County, 2026, weekly, consumer debt. Gross $300.00; required $50.00; disposable $250.00. Floor $217.50 leaves $32.50 reachable; 25% cap is $62.50. Withheld $32.50, take-home $217.50.
TC3 Bristol County, 2026, biweekly, child support. Gross $2,400.00; required $560.00; disposable $1,840.00. With no second family and no arrears, the CCPA tier is 60% = $1,104.00. Withheld $1,104.00, take-home $736.00.
TC4 Newport County, 2026, semimonthly, federal student loan AWG. Gross $2,600.00; required $600.00; disposable $2,000.00. The 15% AWG cap is $300.00. Withheld $300.00, take-home $1,400.00.
TC5 Washington County, 2026, monthly, medical debt. Gross $4,000.00; required $1,000.00; disposable $3,000.00. 25% cap = $750.00. Withheld $750.00, take-home $2,250.00.
Estimates only; not legal advice. All figures VERIFY, including the Rhode Island wage garnishment limits under R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4, the CCPA support tiers, the federal student loan 15% cap, and the 12% post-judgment interest rate. Not modeled: contested exemption hearings, automatic stays, self-employment income, bonuses, severance, pensions, unemployment or workers compensation. Consult a Rhode Island attorney or Rhode Island Legal Services. Deploy: replace the block, Update, purge cache, hard refresh; verify document.getElementById(“rhode-island-wage-garnishment-calculator”).getAttribute(“data-js-ready”) returns “true” with no SyntaxError.

What Is a Rhode Island Wage Garnishment Calculator?

A Rhode Island wage garnishment calculator estimates the amount that may be withheld from one pay period using gross pay, required deductions, pay frequency, order type, and related order details. This tool calculates disposable earnings first, applies the programmed limit for the selected order, and shows estimated withholding, take-home pay, caps, and related paycheck figures.

The calculator offers Single order, Stacking, and Payoff timeline modes. Single order mode calculates one selected order. Stacking mode creates a separate priority waterfall for support, federal tax, federal student loan AWG, and consumer debt. Payoff mode uses the calculated withholding as a repeating payment against an entered balance.

The result panel also shows weekly and annual withholding, disposable earnings, the federal floor, the percentage of disposable earnings withheld, and a description of the factor that limited the result.

How the Rhode Island Wage Garnishment Calculation Works

The calculation starts with gross pay for the selected period. The code subtracts federal 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⁡(0,G−min⁡(G,R))D=\max\left(0,G-\min(G,R)\right)

D is disposable earnings, G is gross pay, and R is the total required withholding used by the code. Voluntary deductions are excluded from disposable earnings and are handled later in the take-home calculation.

The calculator uses 52 annual periods for weekly pay, 26 for biweekly pay, 24 for semimonthly pay, and 12 for monthly pay. It scales its federal floor according to that pay frequency.

Dweekly=D52/PD_{weekly}=\frac{D}{52/P}
Fweekly=30×7.25=217.50F_{weekly}=30\times7.25=217.50
H=max⁡(0,D−217.50×52P)H=\max\left(0,D-217.50\times\frac{52}{P}\right)

P is the number of pay periods per year. H is the amount of disposable earnings above the calculator's $217.50 weekly floor, adjusted to the selected pay period.

Consumer and medical debt

Consumer debt and medical debt use the same calculation. The code compares 25% of disposable earnings, the amount above the federal floor, and the remaining 25% room after Other garnishments.

C=min⁡(0.25D,H,max⁡(0,0.25D−O))C=\min\left(0.25D,H,\max(0,0.25D-O)\right)

C is the calculated cap and O is Other garnishments. If Amount demanded is zero, the calculator uses the calculated cap. A positive demanded amount below the cap reduces the final withholding.

W={C,A=0min⁡(A,C),A>0W=\begin{cases}C,&A=0\\\min(A,C),&A>0\end{cases}

W is withholding for the period and A is Amount demanded.

Child support and alimony

For child support and spousal support, the code uses 50% of disposable earnings when the second-family box is selected and 60% otherwise. Selecting arrears of 12 weeks or older adds five percentage points.

Csupport=rD,r∈{0.50,0.55,0.60,0.65}C_{support}=rD,\qquad r\in\{0.50,0.55,0.60,0.65\}

A positive Amount demanded below this ceiling becomes the withholding amount. With Amount demanded set to zero, the full calculated support ceiling is used, subject to disposable earnings.

Federal student loan AWG

The federal student loan calculation uses the smaller of 15% of disposable earnings and the amount above the calculator's 30-times federal floor.

Cstudent=min⁡(0.15D,H)C_{student}=\min(0.15D,H)

A positive Amount demanded can reduce this amount when it is lower than the calculated cap.

Federal tax debt

The implemented federal tax calculation uses an estimated exempt amount. A positive Override exempt amount replaces the estimate. Otherwise, the code combines its year-specific filing-status amount with $5,300 per dependent and $1,600 per age-65-or-blind box, then divides by the number of pay periods.

E=B+5300d+1600aPE=\frac{B+5300d+1600a}{P}
Ctax=max⁡(0,D−E)C_{tax}=\max(0,D-E)

E is the exempt amount per period, B is the programmed filing-status base, d is the dependent count, and a is the age-65-or-blind count. The code converts the count inputs to whole numbers and limits the final count to two.

Pay yearSingle / MFSHead of householdMarried filing jointly
2024$14,600$21,900$29,200
2025$15,750$23,625$31,500
2026$16,100$24,150$32,200

These are the values stored in the calculator code. The interface describes the federal tax exemption calculation as an estimate that should be verified.

Chapter 13 plan

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

CCh13=min⁡(D,12MP)C_{Ch13}=\min\left(D,\frac{12M}{P}\right)

M is the monthly plan payment. A positive Amount demanded below the calculated payment further reduces withholding.

Worked example

Suppose weekly gross pay is $1,000 and the required deductions used by the calculator total $200. Disposable earnings are $800. For consumer debt with no Other garnishments, 25% of disposable earnings is $200 and the amount above the $217.50 weekly floor is $582.50.

D=1000−200=800D=1000-200=800
C=min⁡(0.25×800,800−217.50,200)=min⁡(200,582.50,200)=200C=\min(0.25\times800,800-217.50,200)=\min(200,582.50,200)=200

If Amount demanded is zero, the calculator displays $200.00 withheld. With no voluntary deductions, displayed take-home pay is $1,000 minus $200 of required withholding and $200 of garnishment, or $600.00.

Payoff timeline formula

Payoff timeline mode treats the calculated withholding as a recurring payment. The annual interest percentage is first converted to an interest rate for each pay period.

i=APR100Pi=\frac{APR}{100P}

For a positive APR, the calculator checks whether the payment exceeds one period of interest on the starting balance. If it does, the number of payments is calculated and rounded upward.

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

B is the balance, Q is the periodic withholding, and n is the number of pay periods. If the payment is less than or equal to one period of interest, the calculator reports that the balance never amortizes. At 0% APR, it rounds balance divided by payment upward and reports zero interest.

How to Use the Rhode Island Wage Garnishment Calculator

  1. Select Single order, Stacking, or Payoff timeline mode.
  2. Select the year wages are payable, one of the five Rhode Island counties, and the pay frequency.
  3. Enter gross pay, federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and any other required withholding.
  4. Enter voluntary deductions separately. They affect take-home pay but not disposable earnings.
  5. Select Consumer debt, Medical debt, Child support, Alimony, Federal student loan AWG, Federal tax debt, or Chapter 13 plan.
  6. Enter Amount demanded and any existing support or other garnishments when applicable.
  7. Complete the extra fields shown for support, federal tax debt, or Chapter 13.
  8. In Stacking mode, enter the separate support, federal tax, federal student loan, and consumer debt amounts.
  9. In Payoff timeline mode, enter the balance owed and annual interest percentage.
  10. Check the required acknowledgment and select Calculate.

The main result is Withheld per pay period. The calculator also shows weekly and annual withholding, gross and disposable pay, required withholding, the 25% amount, floor-based room, the order-specific cap, estimated take-home pay, and the share of disposable earnings withheld. Currency values display with two decimal places, and the percentage result uses two decimal places.

Important Details About the Calculator's Results

The selected pay year does not change the garnishment floor

The year menu displays Rhode Island minimum-wage figures beside 2024, 2025, and 2026. However, those displayed state figures are not used by the calculation functions. The garnishment floor remains based on the fixed $7.25 value stored in the code. The selected year instead changes the programmed filing-status amount used by the federal tax exemption estimate.

There is no separate state income tax deduction field

The form provides fields for federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and Other required withholding, but it has no separate Rhode Island income tax input. The required-withholding calculation therefore contains no dedicated state-income-tax term. A helper message in the interface makes a separate statement about state income tax, but that text does not affect the calculation.

Existing support and the consumer cap are handled differently

The displayed Room remaining figure subtracts both Support already withheld and Other garnishments from 25% of disposable earnings. The consumer and medical debt cap function itself subtracts only Other garnishments. Existing support can therefore lower the displayed Room remaining value without reducing the consumer or medical debt cap used by the calculation.

Federal tax uses an exemption formula, not the explanatory 25% statement

Some text inside the calculator describes federal tax debt as being subject to a 25% amount. The implemented calculation does something different. Both the single-order and stack calculations use the programmed exemption estimate and calculate the amount remaining above that exemption. The article therefore follows the implemented formula rather than the explanatory sentence.

One federal student loan note has a display mismatch

The federal student loan cap itself correctly uses the code's 30-times floor. However, the detailed binding-factor note tries to display a weekly value from a property that is not created by the base calculation. That particular sentence can therefore show $0.00 as the weekly floor even though the actual student-loan calculation uses the separate $217.50 weekly floor.

Stack mode contains four order inputs

The mode selector calls the option “Stacking - five order types,” but the stack section contains four amount boxes: Support, Federal tax, Federal student loan AWG, and Consumer debt. Those four entries are processed in that order.

Support is limited by its support percentage and the disposable earnings remaining at that point. Federal tax then uses the remaining earnings above the exemption estimate. The student loan step applies its cap using the original disposable earnings rather than the amount remaining after the first two steps.

The student loan amount is not separately capped at the remaining earnings before it is subtracted. The consumer step does check the remaining balance. The calculator totals the four stack amounts and prevents displayed take-home pay from falling below $0.00.

The headline result remains a single-order calculation in Stack mode

Choosing Stacking mode does not replace the normal single-order calculation. The headline Withheld per pay period result still comes from the regular Order type and Amount demanded fields. The Priority waterfall panel separately displays the stack amounts, total withheld, and take-home after the waterfall. Stack mode also sends its total withholding to the payoff panel.

Payoff totals use a full final periodic payment

For a positive APR, the calculator reports Total paid as the rounded-up number of pay periods multiplied by the full periodic payment. It does not reduce the final displayed payment to the exact balance still owed. Interest paid is calculated as that reported total minus the starting balance.

The Interest per year field defaults to 12% and allows values from 0% through 40%. The interface marks its stated post-judgment interest figure for verification, so the APR should be treated as an entered assumption for the payoff calculation.

Gross pay must be greater than zero, a county must be selected, and the acknowledgment checkbox must be checked. Most monetary fields allow $0 through $10,000,000. Balance owed allows up to $100,000,000. Dependents allow 0 through 20, and the Age 65 or blind input allows 0 through 2.

This calculator provides estimates only. Actual withholding can depend on the governing order, exemptions, court or agency procedures, applicable law, and facts not represented by the available inputs. Verify the legal assumptions and entered figures before relying on the estimate for an actual garnishment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are disposable earnings in this calculator?

Disposable earnings are gross pay minus federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, mandatory retirement, and Other required withholding. If those required deductions exceed gross pay, the calculator caps the deduction total at gross pay. Voluntary deductions are excluded from disposable earnings.

How are consumer and medical debt calculated?

They use the same formula. The calculator takes the smallest of 25% of disposable earnings, the amount above its federal floor, and the remaining 25% room after Other garnishments. A positive Amount demanded below that cap reduces the result.

What happens when Amount demanded is $0?

In the regular single-order calculation, $0 tells the calculator to use the full cap calculated for the selected order type. A positive amount below the cap reduces withholding. The stack fields work differently: zero in a stack order box means no requested amount for that category.

How does pay frequency affect the result?

Pay frequency changes the conversion between per-period and weekly earnings. That affects the federal floor per pay period, the federal tax exemption amount per period, Chapter 13 payment conversion, weekly and annual result displays, and the payoff calculation.

How is federal tax debt calculated?

The implemented calculation subtracts an estimated exempt amount from disposable earnings and uses any positive remainder as the cap. The estimate depends on the selected year, filing status, dependents, and age-or-blind boxes unless a positive Override exempt amount is entered.

What happens if the payoff payment does not cover interest?

If the APR is above zero and the periodic payment is less than or equal to one period of interest on the starting balance, the calculator does not return a payoff period count. It reports that the balance never amortizes under those entered assumptions.

Does the selected Rhode Island county change the numerical formula?

No. The calculator requires a county and uses it in the result heading, region note, and Superior Court venue text. The numerical calculation functions do not apply different withholding formulas for Bristol, Kent, Newport, Providence, or Washington County.

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