Lohnpfändung 2026: how wage garnishment works in Germany
A German wage garnishment starts with a court order and only ends once the debt is paid. The calculator at the top estimates how many months that takes on your net pay.
The wage garnishment lasts about
9 months
That is about 0.8 years at an unchanged wage.
| Attachable per month | €708.82 |
| You keep | €1,891.18 |
Without interest, enforcement costs or pay changes: the real duration is usually longer. The table changes every 1 July.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How we calculate · 2026 table (Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 80) and ZPO checked on 28 October 2026
In a German wage garnishment (Lohnpfändung) the enforcement court forbids your employer to pay you the attachable part of your wages and transfers that claim to the creditor. The legal basis is a garnishment and transfer order, the Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss, under sections 829 and 835 of the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO). It takes effect as soon as the order is served on your employer. From then on the employer must pay the amount from the garnishment table to the creditor each month and, if asked, state within two weeks whether it will pay and whether others have already garnished your wages. What you keep is set by section 850c ZPO: with no dependants, at least €1,587.40 plus three tenths of the excess. Example: on €2,900 net with one dependant, €357.59 a month goes to the creditor, so a debt of €8,500 would be cleared in about 24 months, leaving interest and costs aside. The garnishment runs until the debt is paid and follows the new table every July.
From application to service
It starts with a creditor who is entitled to enforce a claim and applies to the enforcement court for a garnishment and transfer order. There are official forms for this application, and applicants must use them (section 829(4) ZPO). The court then makes two orders at once: it forbids your employer, called the third-party debtor (Drittschuldner), to pay you, and it orders you not to dispose of the claim, in particular not to collect it yourself.
The creditor has the order served on your employer, and that service makes the garnishment effective. Only afterwards does a bailiff serve the order on you, with proof of service on the employer. At the same time the court transfers the garnished claim to the creditor, at the creditor's choice either for collection or in lieu of payment (section 835 ZPO). For wages this means the creditor may demand the attachable part of your pay from your employer.
What happens at work
From service onwards your employer has to work out the attachable amount on every payslip and pay it to the creditor. Together with the order it receives a request to state within two weeks whether it accepts the claim, whether anyone else claims it and whether it has already been garnished for other creditors (section 840 ZPO). That is how the creditor learns about earlier garnishments. The order need not name a fixed amount: under section 850c(5) ZPO a reference to the table is enough. The employer's duties in detail are under employer duties.
If a garnishment for maintenance meets one for an ordinary debt, the employer first sets the maintenance claim against the part of the wage that is attachable only for maintenance (section 850e no. 4 ZPO). The table amount is then kept, as far as possible, for the other creditor. On application, the enforcement court makes that allocation itself.
| Net per month | no dependant | one dependant | two dependants |
|---|---|---|---|
| €2,300 | 18 months | 148 months | no deduction |
| €2,900 | 10 months | 24 months | 56 months |
| €3,500 | 7 months | 13 months | 22 months |
How long a wage garnishment lasts
There is no fixed end date. The garnishment runs until the debt, including interest and costs, is paid. The calculator at the top divides the outstanding sum by the attachable monthly amount. That is a lower bound: running interest and enforcement costs stretch the time, while a pay rise can shorten it. The allowances also change every 1 July, most recently on 1 July 2026; your employer then uses the new table without any new order.
To know how much goes each month, you need the right net figure. Take out the protected parts of your pay, such as half of any overtime pay, and enter the result in the garnishment calculator. The way there is shown under working out attachable income.
Attachable amount per month
Attachable amount per month
€357.59
| You keep (exempt) | €2,542.41 |
| Goes to the creditor | €357.59 |
| Row of the official table | €2,900 – €2,909.99 |
| Basic allowance with dependants | €2,184.82 |
If the table leaves you too little for your basic living costs, the enforcement court can leave you more on your application; see raising the exempt amount. If the creditor garnishes your bank account instead of, or as well as, your wages, other rules apply; see account garnishment. For maintenance debts the calculation departs from the table: maintenance garnishment.