What is the Salary of a Private Investigator?

Pirvate investigators uncover wrongdoing.

Private investigators look for and analyze information to help individuals and businesses uncover facts about personal, financial and criminal misdeeds. Techniques can include surveillance, researching computer records and making phone calls.

Basics

Private investigators make a median hourly wage of $20.25 or $42,110 per year as of May 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bottom 20 percent earn $11.88 an hour or $24,700 a year, while the top ten percent get $36.52 an hour, or $75,970 a year.

Industry

The highest paying industries for the profession include management and technical consulting services, which pay $43.28 or $90,030, natural gas distribution at $39.94 to $83,080 and computer services at $28.16 or $79,380.

Location

City of employment affects salaries with the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area of California paying the most at $39.59 or $82,340, followed by Oakland-Fremont-Hayward in the same state at $37.03 or $77,010. As for states, Virginia leads at $32.90 or $68,420, followed by New Mexico at $31.12 or $64,730.

References

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Private Detectives and Investigators