How much money do a Private Investigator make an hour.

That's private

That depends how good he is or how much he can get away with asking,

It probably also depends on the area and severity of the investigation.

Rockford used to make $100 a day plus expenses.

Guy Noir is bit more comtemporary...I heard that he makes about $35 an hour...but he's a fictional character also.

I work for several different PI firms and I typically make $25 to $50 per hour depending on what I am doing. If I am doing highly technical investigations, usually involving computer forensics I charge the firm $50 per hour. However, firms bill out my hours at a much higher rate.

The $25 per hour jobs are usually straight divorce cases. I charge $35 per hour for criminal cases. The firms I work for bill out my hours at $85 per hour for domestic and $125 per hour for criminal.

Working for an agency, they may start you at $14.00-$18.00 per hour. Independent PI's can earn anywhere from $35.00-$225.00 per hour depending on their investigative specialty. For example, I know PI's specializing in Computer Forensics or Data Recovery that command as much as $225.00/ph because of the specialized nature of the work. Some Surveillance Op's can request $35.00/ph on the low end usually with a minimum of 4hrs and as much as $85.00/ph and up. The variables of course are dependent on the nature of the case, client, sub-contracting details, etc. This just gives you a broad idea...hope it helps.