Skip to content

An independent salary reference. Not affiliated with BLS or any U.S. government agency.

Salary data from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Private Detectives And Investigators Salary: Missouri vs Minnesota

Private Detectives And Investigators earn a median of $43,780 in Missouri and $72,070 in Minnesota. That is a nominal gap of $28,290 (-39.3%), with Minnesota paying more before any cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2024 estimates. Cost-of-living adjustment uses BEA Regional Price Parities, most recent release.

$43,780
Missouri median
$48,207 after COL
$72,070
Minnesota median
$73,078 after COL
-39.3%
Nominal gap
Minnesota leads
-34.0%
Adjusted gap
Minnesota leads after COL

The story behind the numbers

On raw wages, Minnesota pays $28,290 more per year than Missouri for private detectives and investigators, a gap of +39.3%.

After adjusting for cost of living, Minnesota still comes out ahead, with roughly $24,871 of extra purchasing power (+34.0% real gap). Local prices do not reverse the nominal advantage.

Full breakdown by location

Detailed wage, employment, and cost-of-living figures for private detectives and investigators in each location. Click through to the full local salary page for percentiles, outlook, and peer areas.

Private Detectives And Investigators

Missouri

Median salary
$43,780
Mean salary
$49,750
Employment
450
Location quotient
0.62
Jobs per 1,000
0.2
COL-adjusted median
$48,207
Regional Price Parity
90.8%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Private Detectives And Investigators page for Missouri →

Private Detectives And Investigators

Minnesota

Median salary
$72,070
Mean salary
$69,860
Employment
940
Location quotient
1.29
Jobs per 1,000
0.3
COL-adjusted median
$73,078
Regional Price Parity
98.6%

Exact state RPP match.

Full Private Detectives And Investigators page for Minnesota →

Related pages

Keep digging into private detectives and investigators from a different angle.

Common questions about this comparison

What does the cost-of-living adjustment actually do? +

It divides each location's nominal median wage by its Regional Price Parity (RPP), which measures how local prices compare to the national average (100 = national). A wage of $100,000 in an area with RPP 120 has the same purchasing power as roughly $83,000 nationally.

Why would the nominal and adjusted winners disagree? +

High-cost metros often pay higher salaries, but not by enough to fully offset the higher cost of housing, goods, and services. When that happens, the location with the lower nominal wage actually offers more real purchasing power.

What is a location quotient? +

The location quotient measures how concentrated an occupation is in a given area versus the national average. A value of 2.0 means the occupation is twice as common there as nationally. It is a signal of what a state specializes in.