Kentucky: Wage Garnishment Limits

Requirements one by one

Governing law

The cap and its exceptions live in KRS § 427.010, Kentucky's general exemptions statute (the same section that also exempts specific personal property like household furnishings and one vehicle). Anti-discharge protection sits in a separate section of the same chapter, § 427.140. Priority among competing garnishment orders is governed by a Civil Procedure section, § 425.506.

Maximum that can be garnished

Section 427.010(2) caps garnishment at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings for the week, or the amount by which earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage, word for word the federal CCPA formula. This single rule covers every kind of ordinary private debt; Kentucky doesn't carve out a separate, different track for consumer credit transactions.

State rule vs. federal floor

Kentucky simply adopts the federal formula rather than exceeding it. Unlike states such as California, Colorado, or Maryland that cut the percentage or raise the wage-multiple floor beyond what federal law requires, Kentucky's own statute states the identical federal rule and stops there.

Minimum-wage protected floor

Thirty times the FEDERAL minimum hourly wage, $7.25, works out to $217.50 for a weekly pay period (scaled proportionally for other pay-period lengths). Kentucky has no state minimum wage above the federal rate, so there's no higher state figure to substitute in the way some states use their own, higher minimum wage.

Support, tax & student loan debts

Section 427.010(3) expressly removes three categories from the ordinary cap altogether: any court order for support of any person, any Chapter 13 bankruptcy court order, and any debt due for state or federal tax. Support garnishment instead follows the federal CCPA's own higher tiers directly, up to 50% of disposable earnings if the obligor supports another spouse or child, up to 60% if not, rising further with significant arrears. Tax debt is collected through the taxing authority's own separate levy process rather than through this statute. Federal student loans run on their own independent federal mechanism, capped at 15% of disposable pay under 20 U.S.C. § 1095a, entirely outside Kentucky's garnishment statute.

Head-of-household/family exemption

There isn't one. Section 427.010's cap applies the same way whether or not a debtor supports dependents; Kentucky has no per-dependent dollar add-on or broader family-support exemption layered on top of the standard formula.

Multiple garnishments at once

Kentucky runs a strict first-in-time line based on when a garnishment order was actually SERVED on the employer, not when it was filed or when the underlying judgment was entered. Section 425.506(2) gives priority "according to the date of service on the employer," with each later order only "taking effect as if served at the commencement of the next succeeding pay period not subject to a prior order", meaning the earlier garnishment must be paid off completely before a later one starts. The same section also blocks a single creditor from stacking two of its own orders on the same employer against the same employee within one pay period.

Protection from being fired

Section 427.140 tracks the federal rule exactly: an employer can't discharge an employee "by reason of the fact that his earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one (1) indebtedness." Kentucky doesn't extend this protection further, once a second or third unrelated garnishment hits the same paycheck, the statute no longer shields the employee, the same limitation built into the federal rule itself (15 U.S.C. § 1674).

What trips people up

Because Kentucky's statute reads almost identically to the federal formula, it's easy to assume the state offers no protection of its own at all, but the state statute is what actually governs in Kentucky courts, and it's the version that gets cited in state garnishment orders and court forms, even though the numbers match federal law exactly. It's also worth noting that the § 427.010(3) exceptions only say the ordinary CAP doesn't apply to support, bankruptcy, and tax debt, they don't mean those debts are barred or unregulated; each follows its own separate, often higher, limit instead.

Common questions

Does Kentucky protect more of my paycheck than federal law requires?
No, Kentucky's statute states the identical federal CCPA formula (the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount above 30 times the federal minimum wage) and doesn't go further.

If two different creditors both get judgments against me, do they split my paycheck?
No, whichever creditor's garnishment order was served on your employer first gets paid in full before the second creditor's garnishment takes effect.

Can my employer fire me if my wages get garnished a second time for an unrelated debt?
Kentucky's anti-discharge statute only protects against firing over a single garnishment for one indebtedness; it doesn't extend to a second or third unrelated garnishment, the same limit found in federal law.

Statutes and sources

• KRS § 427.010(2)-(3) — "the maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment may not exceed the lesser of either: (a) Twenty-five percent (25%)... or (b) The amount by which his disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty (30) times the federal minimum hourly wage... The restrictions of subsection (2)... do not apply in the case of: (a) Any order of any court for the support of any person. (b) Any order of any court of bankruptcy under Chapter 13... (c) Any debt due for any state or federal tax." — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=46624 (accessed 2026-07-05)
• KRS § 427.140 — "No employer may discharge any employee by reason of the fact that his earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one (1) indebtedness." — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=18556 (accessed 2026-07-05)
• KRS § 425.506(2) — "Orders of attachment or garnishment of earnings shall have priority according to the date of service on the employer, each inferior order taking effect as if served at the commencement of the next succeeding pay period not subject to a prior order; provided that no creditor shall cause two (2) orders to be served on the employer against the same employee in the same pay period." — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=18419 (accessed 2026-07-05)
• 15 U.S.C. § 1673(b) — "The maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subject to garnishment to enforce any order for the support of any person shall not exceed— (A)... 50 per centum... and (B)... 60 per centum." — https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2011-title15/USCODE-2011-title15-chap41-subchapII-sec1673 (accessed 2026-07-05)
• 20 U.S.C. § 1095a(a)(1) — "the amount deducted for any pay period may not exceed 15 percent of disposable pay, except that a greater percentage may be deducted with the written consent of the individual involved." — https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title20-section1095a&num=0&edition=prelim (accessed 2026-07-05)