republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/ab-1775.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Wage garnishment: exempt earnings."
description: "The Wage Garnishment Law governs earnings withholding orders and provides definitions of certain terms. Existing law requires a levy of execution upon the earnings of a judgment debtor to be made by service of an earnings withholding order upon the debtor's employer. Existing law limits the amount of earnings of a judgment debtor that may be subject to an earnings withholding order to the amount specified by federal law, unless an exception applies. Federal law prohibits the amount of earnings that may be subject to garnishment from exceeding 25% of an individual's weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which the individual's disposable earnings for the week exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 1775"
citation: "California AB 1775 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Wage garnishment: exempt earnings."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Wieckowski"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 18
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2012-02-17"
last_action: "2012-09-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c7748aee-e2b5-4c51-9737-9bf4c9337075"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775"
source_hash: "61be909dd5992c0269f12953f3a5a2ca6c763792c6e6242a0d7dc21ae02fea29"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1775 (20112012) — Wage garnishment: exempt earnings.

The Wage Garnishment Law governs earnings withholding orders and provides definitions of certain terms. Existing law requires a levy of execution upon the earnings of a judgment debtor to be made by service of an earnings withholding order upon the debtor's employer. Existing law limits the amount of earnings of a judgment debtor that may be subject to an earnings withholding order to the amount specified by federal law, unless an exception applies. Federal law prohibits the amount of earnings that may be subject to garnishment from exceeding 25% of an individual's weekly disposable earnings or the amount by which the individual's disposable earnings for the week exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect at the time the earnings are payable.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/12 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775&version=20110AB177599INT)
2. **04/17/12 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775&version=20110AB177598AMD)
3. **06/21/12 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775&version=20110AB177597AMD)
4. **09/23/12 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775&version=20110AB177595CHP)
5. **AB1775** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775)
6. **08/27/12 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB1775&version=20110AB177596ENR)

## Votes

- AB 1775 WIECKOWSKI Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **51–28** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended. — **7–3** (pass) · lower
- AB 1775 WIECKOWSKI Assembly Third Reading — **46–25** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB1775 Wieckowski By Wright — **22–16** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **4–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Wieckowski — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2012-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2012-02-21** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2012-03-01** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2012-04-16** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 3.) (April 10). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-04-17** Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-04-18** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2012-04-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 46. Noes 25. Page 4483.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-04-23** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2012-04-26** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2012-06-07** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2012-06-20** From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 4. Noes 1.) (May 9). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2012-06-21** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2012-08-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 22. Noes 16. Page 4572.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2012-08-20** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after August 22 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2012-08-22** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 51. Noes 28. Page 6105.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2012-08-30** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m.
- **2012-09-23** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2012-09-23** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 474, Statutes of 2012.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c7748aee-e2b5-4c51-9737-9bf4c9337075`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).