Are Private Investigators Rich?

Many become private investigators with aspirations of making a lot of money quickly. They believe there is easy money to make when they see private investigation businesses charging clients anywhere from $65 an hour to well over $100 an hour.  

So are private investigators rich? No, most private investigators are not rich. The majority of private investigators many times are not the breadwinners in their families. Generally speaking, the private investigators that make a livable wage have been in the industry for a very long time, are in a management position or are private investigation business owners.

What is the Average Private Investigator’s Salary?

The Mean annual wage of a private investigator in the United States is $60,970.  You can read more about private investigators’ salaries in the United States here. 

Assuming a private investigator works 40 hours a week (this doesn’t always happen) that would average an hourly wage of $29.31.

Gross pay assuming that 40 hours a week was consistent every month would be a gross salary of $5,080.83 a month.  Net pay after taxes and all the other things that get taken from a paycheck would leave an investigator with roughly $4,150 a month. 

The difficulty with private investigations is that month-to-month a private investigator’s salary can be incredibly inconsistent which is just one of the many cons of being a private investigator. You can read more about the pros and cons of private investigating here. 

What is the High Salary Made as a Private Investigator?

In the United States, the top 5 highest paying average states are:

• Arkansas
• Nevada
• Colorado
• Missouri 
• Oregon

These salaries look quite high however, it might not go as far as you might think.

Arkansas Private Investigator Median Pay Considerations

According to the Living Wage Calculator for Arkansas, to make a living wage with one parent working with 3 children, a private investigator would need to earn $37.80 an hour or $78,642 a year (calculations done here).  So the highest paid state for investigators is just over a living wage.  

Nevada Private Investigator Median Pay Considerations

According to the Living Wage Calculator for Nevada, to make a living wage with one parent working and 3 children, a private investigator would need to earn $41.10 an hour or $85,488 a year.  The average paid investigators for this state roughly make $7,000 less the living wage needed.

Colorado Private Investigator Median Pay Considerations

The Living Wage Calculator for Colorado indicates to make a living wage with one parent working and 3 children, a private investigator would need to earn $45.25 an hour or $94,120 a year.  This is roughly $16,000 a year lower than needed for this state.

Missouri Private Investigator Median Pay Considerations

The Living Wage Calculator for Missouri states that to make a living wage with one parent working and 3 children, a private investigator would need to earn $40.11 an hour or $83,428.20 a year. This is roughly $6,000 more than the average private investigator in the state of Missouri.

Oregon Private Investigator Median Pay Considerations

The Living Wage Calculator for Oregon indicates that to make a living wage with one parent working and 3 children, a private investigator would need to earn $46.97 an hour or $97,687.60 a year. This is nearly $21,000 more than the average private investigator makes within the state.

Please Note

While gathering numbers to share this information the writer did not pull averages for individual standards of living for each county or city within those states. Also, if there is a two-income family, each working parent would need to make less (because their incomes are combined. Play with the calculator and the standard of living website to see what you would need to earn for each state.

Can Private Investigators Get Rich?

Everyone has a different standard of living that they feel is acceptable. Everyone has a different idea of what “Rich” means.

While the average salaries look pretty high for the states that are reviewed, there are higher salaries and much lower salaries that make up that average. In general, you will find that most investigators fall below that average.

Why Do Private Investigators Make Less Than The Average?

There are basically 3 reasons private investigators struggle to make a livable wage.

They Aren’t Paid a Liveable Wage as an Employee

Many entry-level private investigation positions pay in the mid to low $20 an hour range. Private investigators that are paid $25.00 an hour equates to $52,000 a year. Some investigators are paid less than $25.00 an hour which can make it difficult to live on.

The Work is Inconsistent as a Private Investigator

If a private investigator earns $25 an hour but there are only 16 hours of work available in a given week, that hourly pay doesn’t mean as much.  In fact, the investigator will take home $400 gross pay for that week. That isn’t enough to live on.  So workload is a determining factor as to what a private investigator brings home.

Things Out of a Private Investigator’s Control

A private investigator may have their hours cut short as a surveillance investigator if they lose a subject while following them.  An investigator may have someone they were set to interview cancel or not show up causing the investigator not to have work. This can affect how much a private investigator earns.

All Three Make it Difficult to Earn a Living

If a private investigator employee makes $25 an hour but doesn’t get enough work assignments and on top of that, the investigator’s assignments aren’t billable, you can see how it would be difficult to make a living as a private investigator, let alone become rich.

Private Investigators That Are Rich Aren’t Employees

The only way to truly become rich as a private investigator would be to own a private investigation business. I have written about how to start your own private investigation business here and the cost of starting a P.I. business here.

You may make a good living working in management for an investigation company but you will never be rich.  You can work crazy hours 6 days a week but you will never be rich working as an employee for an investigation company.

The most financially well-off private investigators I have worked for and worked with have all been business owners. These private business owners that I would consider rich $250,000 to $1,000,000 a year have relatively modest private investigation businesses with 5 to 10 investigators on the payroll and some administration staff on board as well.

These companies are also known to subcontract work to small investigation companies to cover assignments they can’t handle.  There are only a handful of major privately owned investigation companies left in the United States as most large companies have been acquired by corporations.

So to be rich as a private investigator you need to be a business owner. Start off small and build up a client list of insurance companies, TPAs (Third Party Administrators), lawyers, government accounts, and corporate accounts to have repeat business. As your company grows you will naturally expand, grow your revenue, and of course profit.