OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Gather, analyze, compile, and report information regarding individuals or organizations to clients, or detect occurrences of unlawful acts or infractions of rules in private establishment.
Highlights
Undergraduate program resulting in the highest median salary ($70K): Finance
Largest undergraduate program (20.8% of workers): Criminal Justice and Fire Protection
Explore Pathways
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Private detectives and investigators typically do the following:
- Interview people to gather information
- Search online, public, and court records to uncover clues
- Conduct surveillance
- Collect evidence for clients
- Check for civil judgments and criminal history
Private detectives and investigators offer many services for individuals, attorneys, and businesses. Examples include performing background checks, investigating employees for possible theft from a company, proving or disproving infidelity in a divorce case, and helping to locate a missing person.
Private detectives and investigators use a variety of tools when researching the facts in a case. Much of their work is done with a computer, allowing them to obtain information such as telephone numbers, details about social networks, descriptions of online activities, and records of a person’s prior arrests. They make phone calls to verify facts and interview people when conducting a background investigation.
Detectives also conduct surveillance when investigating a case. They may watch locations, such as a person’s home or office, often from a hidden position. Using cameras and binoculars, detectives gather information on people of interest.
Detectives and investigators must be mindful of the law when conducting investigations. Because they lack police authority, their work must be done with the same authority as a private citizen. As a result, detectives and investigators must have a good understanding of federal, state, and local laws, such as privacy laws, and other legal issues affecting their work. Otherwise, evidence they collect may not be useable in court and they could face prosecution.
Skip tracers specialize in locating people whose whereabouts are unknown. For example, debt collectors may employ them to locate people who have unpaid bills.
Salary
Median salary: $53,320 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $38,400 and $73,190.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for private detectives and investigators
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Private Detectives and Investigators
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of private detectives and investigators who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (89%)
- Consequence of Error (34%)
- High Conflict Frequency (34%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Private Detectives and Investigators? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Communication skills
Private detectives and investigators must listen carefully and ask appropriate questions when interviewing a person of interest.
Decisionmaking skills
Private detectives and investigators must be able to think on their feet and make quick decisions, based on the limited information that they have at a given time.
Inquisitiveness
Private detectives and investigators must want to ask questions and search for the truth.
Patience
Private detectives and investigators may have to spend long periods conducting surveillance while waiting for an event to occur. Investigations may take a long time, and they may not provide a resolution quickly—or at all.
Resourcefulness
Private detectives and investigators must work persistently with whatever leads they have, no matter how limited, to determine the next step toward their goal. They sometimes need to anticipate what a person of interest will do next.
Injury and Illness
About 86 private detectives and investigators become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 78% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Soreness and pain
Fractures
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by private detectives and investigators
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), private detectives and investigators typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as private detectives and investigators as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for private detectives and investigators
Education requirements vary greatly with the job, but most jobs require a high school diploma. Some, though, may require a 2- or 4-year degree in a field such as criminal justice.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for private detectives and investigators
Most states require private detectives and investigators to have a license. Check with your state for more information; Professional Investigator Magazine has links to most states’ licensing requirements. Because laws often change, jobseekers should verify the licensing laws related to private investigators with the state and locality in which they want to work.
Candidates may also obtain certification, although it is not required for employment. Still, becoming certified through professional organizations can demonstrate competence and may help candidates advance in their careers.
For investigators who specialize in negligence or criminal defense investigation, the National Association of Legal Investigators offers the Certified Legal Investigator certification. For other investigators, ASIS International offers the Professional Certified Investigator certification.
Education level of Private Detectives and Investigators
About 59% of private detectives and investigators have at least a bachelor's degree.
Education attained by private detectives and investigators
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Top college degrees
Here are the top college degrees held by the 56% of people in this job who have at least a bachelor's degree. Some of degrees may link to multiple programs due to the way Census classifies college majors. Click on a program to learn more about career opportunities for people who major in that field.
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College majors held by private detectives and investigators
This table shows the college majors held by people working as private detectives and investigators. If you see "**" before the name of a degree/program, that means this field is one that the Department of Education believes is preparatory for this career. However, you can see from this list that those recommendations are far from your only path to this job!
Major
Select any title to learn more about that degree
Salary comparison for bachelor's only
Higher
Similar
Lower
Career salary (tail) versus Career/Major salary (dot)
Does the bachelor's-only salary rise or fall with this major?
Salary for bachelor's-only
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Salary for all workers
For people with this career and major
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
Education for Career and Major
Bachelor's
Master's
Professional
Doctorate
Workers with this career/major
Percentage in this career with this major
Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click a program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Program
Not so much?
The link between degrees and this career
With the following sankey diagram, you can follow the top ten bachelor's degrees held by people working as private detectives and investigators, and then, in turn, you can see the 10 occupations that hire the most of each degree's graduates. We hope this provides ideas for similar jobs and similar fields of study.
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Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Private Detectives and Investigators per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most private detectives and investigators? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as private detectives and investigators. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where private detectives and investigators earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for private detectives and investigators compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for private detectives and investigators.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which private detectives and investigators earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Private Detectives and Investigators (ACS)
Employment
8% of Private detectives and investigators are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 8% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 64% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of private detectives and investigators by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Private detectives and investigators and gender
With 45% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 57% of careers.
Gender of Private detectives and investigators
Men (55%)
Women (45%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for private detectives and investigators tops that, with the median salary for
men 25% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Private detectives and investigators
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Private detectives and investigators.
Race/origin of private detectives and investigators
White (71% )
Black (16% )
Asian (4% )
Multiracial (4% )
Other (3% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
