When They Garnish
ORC 2329.66 — the ceiling on what a judgment can reach
A judgment is a finding that money is owed. Garnishment is the machinery that turns that finding into money, and it is the part almost nobody reads about until it has already started. It has a ceiling, it has a warning step before it, and there is a list of income it cannot touch at all.
Who handles this in Ohio: Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.Holding a paper like this? Read my paper can read one for you, free with an account.
A wage garnishment has a demand step before it. Before a creditor can move to garnish personal earnings, the section requires a demand for payment. Fifteen days run from the mailing or service of that notice, and if nothing answers it the creditor goes to court and asks that the employer be ordered to withhold. That notice is the last point at which the process is still quiet, which is exactly why it is the one people throw away.
The ceiling is written as what the exemption section protects rather than as what a creditor may take. It protects whichever of two figures is greater, and only what is left above that can be garnished.
| The two figures | What it means |
|---|---|
| The two figuresSeventy five per cent of disposable earnings | What it meansDisposable means net earnings after the deductions required by law, not what is left after rent |
| The two figuresThirty times the federal minimum hourly wage, for a weekly pay | What it meansSixty times for a biweekly pay, sixty five times for a semimonthly pay, one hundred thirty times for a monthly pay, at the rate in effect when the earnings are payable |
| The two figuresWhichever is greater | What it meansThe larger of the two is protected, so a low enough pay check is reached by nothing at all |
A bank account is reached by a different route. Garnishment of property other than personal earnings has its own section, it lands on the account rather than on an employer, and it does not run on the same weekly cycle a wage garnishment does.
Some income is exempt however much of it there is. Ohio's exemption section puts categories of income outside garnishment altogether rather than capping them. Social security, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, disability payments, Ohio Works First payments, child support and spousal support received, and most pensions are on that list. Exempt income deposited into a bank account is a recurring fight, because the account itself is garnishable and the money in it may not be.
The same section also exempts property rather than income: an interest in a residence, a motor vehicle, household goods, tools of a trade, and a general amount that can be applied to anything. The dollar figures on those are set in the section and are adjusted periodically for inflation, so the number in an article from three years ago is probably not the number now.
Judgment proof is a real condition and not a figure of speech. Somebody whose only income is on the exempt list, and whose property fits inside the exemptions, can have a judgment entered against them and pay nothing on it, indefinitely. The judgment still exists and it can be revived later if circumstances change, but there is nothing for a garnishment to take in the meantime. That is a description of what the exemption sections do rather than a plan.
Most consumer judgments are default judgments, which means nobody appeared and the court entered judgment on the papers. A default is a judgment like any other and it enforces like any other, which is why the summons at the start of a collection case decides more than the demand letter at the end of it does.
“Is this income on the exempt list.”
Child support and spousal support orders are enforced through their own machinery and are not limited the way this page describes. Federal tax levies, federal student loan collection and state tax assessments each run under their own rules rather than this chapter. The exemption figures are in the section and are adjusted over time. Whether a particular garnishment is within the ceiling, whether a payment is exempt, and how an exemption is claimed in a particular court are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and legal aid offices across the state handle consumer debt as a matter of course.
Sources for this section (5)
- ORC 2329.66 — Property a debtor may hold exempt from execution, garnishment or sale, including the share of a paycheck a garnishment cannot take
- ORC 2716.02 — The demand for payment that has to come before a wage garnishment
- ORC 2716.01 — Garnishment, and collecting on a judgment once you have one
- ORC 2716.11 — Garnishment of property other than personal earnings, which is how a bank account is reached
- ORC 1925.04 — Starting a small claims action, and how the other side is served
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.