Idaho: Wage Garnishment Limits
The short answer
Idaho simply adopts the federal formula: a creditor can take the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($217.50 a week at $7.25/hour). The same rule is written twice in Idaho's code — once in the general execution-exemptions chapter and again in a 2017 rewrite of the garnishment chapter — with no substantive difference between them. There's no head-of-household exemption. Support orders, tax debt, and bankruptcy orders bypass the cap entirely. Only one continuing wage garnishment can run at a time; later garnishments wait their turn in the order they were presented. Idaho has no anti-discharge statute of its own — only the federal rule against firing an employee over a single garnishment applies.
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This is the general rule in Idaho. Ezel applies current Idaho law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | Idaho Code § 11-712 (2017 Garnishments chapter) and § 11-207 (older execution-exemptions chapter) — near-identical restatements of the wage cap; § 11-704 (continuing-garnishment priority) |
|---|---|
| Maximum that can be garnished | Lesser of 25% of disposable earnings for the workweek, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage (§ 11-712(1)) — the plain federal CCPA formula, restated verbatim rather than cut further |
| State rule vs. federal floor | Adopts the federal 25%/30x-federal-min-wage test exactly, with no lower percentage or higher floor of its own; the support-order percentages (50/55/60/65%) also match the federal CCPA support tiers verbatim |
| Minimum-wage protected floor | 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by 29 U.S.C.A. § 206(a)(1) — $217.50/week at $7.25/hour — not raised or tied to Idaho's own state minimum wage |
| Support, tax & student loan debts | Support orders, bankruptcy Chapter XIII orders, and state or federal tax debt are all excepted from the ordinary cap entirely (§ 11-712(2)(a)); a support order instead caps at 50% of disposable earnings (55% with 12+ weeks of arrears) if supporting another spouse or child, or 60% (65% with arrears) if not (§ 11-712(2)(b)) |
| Head-of-household/family exemption | None. Idaho's wage-garnishment statutes apply the same 25%/30x-min-wage formula regardless of whether the debtor supports a family |
| Multiple garnishments at once | First-in-time, enforced through a continuing-garnishment mechanism: an employer-garnishee pays a continuing garnishment until it's satisfied; if it's already withholding the statutory maximum, any additional garnishment can't be served until the continuing one is satisfied or drops below the cap, and additional garnishments are served in the order presented (§ 11-704) |
| Protection from being fired | No independent Idaho statute bars firing an employee over an ordinary wage garnishment; only the federal rule applies, barring discharge for a single garnishment for one debt (15 U.S.C. § 1674) |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
Requirements one by one
Governing law
Idaho states its wage-garnishment cap in two places: Idaho Code § 11-207 (in
the general property-exemptions chapter, dating to 1970) and § 11-712 (in a
comprehensive Garnishments chapter Idaho enacted in 2017). Both say the same
thing. The rule for handling more than one garnishment against the same
paycheck is a separate section in the 2017 chapter, § 11-704.
Maximum garnishment amount
The cap is the lesser of 25% of the debtor's disposable earnings for the
workweek, or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal
minimum hourly wage (§ 11-712(1)). This is the plain federal Consumer Credit
Protection Act formula; Idaho has not enacted a more protective version of
its own.
Federal floor comparison
Idaho simply restates the federal test rather than cutting the percentage or
raising the minimum-wage multiple the way some states do. Even the higher
percentages that apply to support garnishments (50%, 55%, 60%, 65% depending
on other dependents and arrears, § 11-712(2)(b)) match the federal CCPA
support tiers exactly.
Minimum wage protection floor
30 times the federal minimum hourly wage — $217.50 a week at the current
$7.25 federal rate. The statute ties the multiplier to the federal Fair Labor
Standards Act's minimum wage, not any Idaho state minimum wage (§
11-712(1)(b)).
Priority debt exceptions
Court-ordered support, Chapter XIII bankruptcy orders, and state or federal
tax debt are all excepted from the ordinary 25%/30x cap entirely (§
11-712(2)(a)). A support order instead can take up to 50% of disposable
earnings if the debtor is supporting another spouse or child (55% if arrears
run 12 or more weeks), or up to 60% if not (65% with old arrears) (§
11-712(2)(b)). Federal student loan collection follows its own separate,
non-court administrative process outside this statute.
Head-of-household exemption
Idaho has no percentage-based exemption for a debtor supporting a family.
The 25%/30x-minimum-wage test applies the same way to every debtor regardless
of household status.
Multiple garnishments priority
Idaho handles competing claims through a continuing-garnishment mechanism
rather than a simple priority list. Once a creditor gets a continuing
garnishment against an employer-garnishee, it runs until the judgment is
satisfied. If that continuing garnishment is already taking the statutory
maximum, a later garnishment can't even be served until the first one is
satisfied or drops below the cap — and once it can be served, additional
garnishments are handled in the order they were presented (§ 11-704).
Employee termination protection
Idaho has no independent statute protecting an employee from being fired
over a wage garnishment. Only the federal floor applies: an employer can't
discharge an employee because of a single garnishment for one debt (15
U.S.C. § 1674). A second garnishment for a different debt isn't protected by
either federal or Idaho law.
What trips people up
Don't be confused by seeing two different Idaho Code sections — § 11-207 and
§ 11-712 — cited for the same 25%/30x rule; they say the same thing, and
Idaho simply never repealed the older one when it added the 2017 garnishment
chapter. Also don't assume a second garnishment can be served and collected
alongside a first: if the first (continuing) garnishment already takes the
full amount the law allows, the second one has to wait until the first is
satisfied or the amount withheld drops below the cap.
Common questions
Does Idaho protect more of my paycheck than federal law?
No — § 11-712 matches the federal 25%/30x-minimum-wage formula exactly, with
no state-specific cut.
I already have a garnishment — can a second creditor collect at the same
time?
Only if the first garnishment isn't already taking the maximum allowed. If
it is, the second garnishment can't be served until the first is satisfied
or falls below the cap, and it then takes its place in the order it was
presented (§ 11-704).
Can my employer fire me because my wages are being garnished?
Not for a single garnishment for one debt — federal law bars that. Idaho has
no additional state-law protection beyond the federal rule.
Statutes and sources
- Idaho Code § 11-712 — https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title11/T11CH7/SECT11-712/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- Idaho Code § 11-704 — https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title11/T11CH7/SECT11-704/ (accessed 2026-07-05)
- 15 U.S.C. § 1674 — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1674 (accessed 2026-07-05)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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