Most states have a wage garnishment law. In some states, wage garnishment laws can be used in bankruptcy as an exemption to protect income that you had coming due, but not yet received, as of the day you filed, for work you had already done — so called “earned but unpaid wages”.

In some states, the wage garnishment law protects not only wages owed to you, but also wages already in your possession and saved over time preferably holding it in a separate bank account. In other states wage garnishment laws do not protect wages once they are they are in your possession.

There is a federal wage garnishment protection found in the CCPA (Consumer Credit Protection Act), 15 U.S.C. § 1673, which limits how much of your pay can be taken for collection purposes. But this law law is generally found not to be an exemptions in bankruptcy. See, e.g. IN RE HORTON, Case No. 10-53495., Bankr. ED Kentucky, 3/4/2011

Some courts have also held that some state wage garnishment laws do not create an exemption in bankruptcy. See, eg. Utah, Tennessee, Vermont, Missouri.

Other courts have held that state garnishment statutes DO create an exemption. See, e.g., Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas, Indiana.

And in Illinois there are recent published bankruptcy court opinions going both ways on the issue of whether Illinois wage garnishment law can be used as an exemption in bankruptcy.

Click here for collected case law on the question: Do wage garnishment laws create an exemption in bankruptcy?

Finally, if you live in a state that lets you use the Federal bankruptcy exemptions in 522(d), and you choose to use them, then you get no exemption for earned but unpaid wages; the wildcard exemption is your only option. See, e.g. U.S. v. Christensen, 200 B.R. 869 (D.S.D. 1996) (applying FDCPA law, based on similar statutory structure to bankruptcy’s opt-out law)