Wage garnishment in South Dakota

Most a card or medical judgment can take

20% of take-home paysource

Pay you always keep

$474 a week (40 x $11.85), plus $25 per dependent at homesource

Time to file your answer claiming exempt pay

30 days after the garnishee summons is served on yousource

Money and other property you can pick to keep

$7,000 for a head of family, $5,000 for otherssource

How much of my paycheck can be garnished in South Dakota?

Under South Dakota Codified Laws 21-18-51, the creditor gets the smaller of two numbers each week: 20% of your disposable earnings (pay left after taxes and other required withholding) or whatever you earn above 40 times the minimum wage. The law uses the state rate when it is higher than the federal $7.25 and it is.

The South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation lists $11.85 an hour for 2026, so the weekly floor is $474. Paid every two weeks, the first $948 is safe.

• On $800 a week of take-home pay, the most is $160. Federal rules alone would allow $200.
• On $550, only $76 can go, because that is all you earn above $474.

Dependents at home lower the amount

South Dakota is one of the few states that rewards a household size. The same statute takes $25 a week off the garnishable amount for each dependent family member who lives with you, not counting yourself. Two children at home means $50 less can be taken each week.

Using the $550 example, one dependent drops the weekly garnishment from $76 to $51. Three dependents drop it to $1. Look at your pay stub and the employer’s disclosure form. If the figures treat you as single when you are not, that is a reason to object.

The floor will rise again: the state lists $12.30 an hour starting January 1, 2027, which lifts the protected amount to $492 a week.

The garnishee summons and the 120-day lien

A creditor here cannot garnish anything before it wins a final judgment. After that, it files an affidavit and a garnishee summons and your employer (the garnishee) has 30 days to answer in writing about what it owes you. A copy of the summons and affidavit must reach you before or within 30 days after, your employer gets it.

If the creditor marks the summons “continuing lien,” SDCL 21-18-14.1 lets your employer keep holding the non-exempt part of each check for 120 days. The lien ends sooner if the held amount covers the sum in the summons or you leave the job. To keep going after 120 days, the creditor needs a fresh disclosure from your employer.

How to fight a garnishment in South Dakota

You can defend against the garnishment yourself. SDCL 21-18-42 gives you 30 days from the day the garnishee summons is served on you to serve a verified answer, meaning a written answer you swear is true. In it you can say the money is exempt or for some other reason cannot be garnished.

If funds are already being held, you can ask the court for an order to show cause that releases part of the money without waiting for the whole case to finish. Free help with the paperwork is available through the Unified Judicial System’s legal help page, which routes you to East River Legal Services, Dakota Plains Legal Services or Access to Justice. Call and a garnishment specialist goes through your summons and the 30-day date with you.

Money in the bank and other protected property

Bank accounts can be garnished with the same summons. South Dakota lets you pick personal property to keep and money counts. Under SDCL 43-45-4 a head of family can claim up to $7,000 in total value and anyone else up to $5,000.

Some things are shielded on top of that, with no dollar cap, including clothing, family pictures, prescribed health aids and court-ordered support you receive, up to $750 a month when it is paid as a regular amount, not a lump sum.