Fraud Investigator Salary in 2027: What Insurers, Banks and Agencies Pay

Fraud investigator salary depends on whose number you read. The closest federal wage group puts the median at $78,000 a year, job postings on Indeed average $83,196, and self-reported profiles on Payscale average $73,959.

Your employer moves the number more than the source does. Federal government workers in the BLS group have the highest median of the industries it lists, and federal criminal investigators can earn far more.

What Is the Average Fraud Investigator Salary?

Start with a caution. The BLS has no wage line for fraud investigators. Its closest match is claims adjusters, examiners and investigators, a group that also counts insurance adjusters. O*NET, the Labor Department’s occupation database, files fraud examiners, investigators and analysts under a different group, Financial Specialists, All Other. We show both so you can see the range, using May 2025 wages.

The median is the middle: half the workers earned more and half earned less. Now look at the spread. In the closest-match group, the 90th percentile is about 2.4 times the 10th, so you’re reading a wide range. Your own pay depends on where in it you land. The hourly median for the group is $37.50.

What Is a Financial Investigator Salary?

It’s close to the same job under a different label. O*NET lists “Financial Investigator” and “Financial Crimes Investigator” among the reported titles for the Financial Specialists group, which had an $81,100 median. If you’re searching for a financial investigator salary, that’s the figure to start from. Postings you find at banks and agencies may sit anywhere in the range above.

For the version of the job that carries a badge, see our financial crimes investigator guide. The BLS reports a $77,310 median for police and detectives, which is close to the claims group.

Why Do Fraud Investigator Salary Sources Disagree?

Because each one counts different people. The table shows what sits behind each number.

When you read any salary page, check who the number counts. The BLS counts all workers in a group, adjusters included. Indeed counts advertised jobs, so it shows what employers offered. Payscale counts people who chose to report their pay. The ACFE counts credential holders only.

Franklin’s figures are from 2023, so you should read them with that year attached. Franklin also found a median advertised salary of $88,448 among postings that listed pay.

None of these sources is wrong, but each answers a different question. If you need the most defensible number for a budget, use the BLS median and treat the others as a sanity check.

Which Employers Pay Fraud Investigators the Most?

Employer is the biggest swing factor we can measure. The BLS lists May 2025 median pay in the five industries that employ the most workers in the claims group, along with each industry’s share of the jobs.

Direct insurance carriers and agencies employ most of this group, and they pay near the overall median. The federal government pays the most of the five, though it hires only 13 percent of the group. Health insurers pay the least of the five. Keep in mind that the group includes claims examiners who review routine health bills, so that figure doesn’t speak for investigators alone.

Job postings give you a feel for individual openings. They list what an employer expects to pay, which isn’t always what you’ll end up earning.

On Indeed, a Banner Bank fraud investigator opening listed $30.34 to $35.69 an hour. A New York health care employer listed $77,099.34 to $92,519.21 a year. Peraton’s Medicare fraud investigator opening listed $66,000 to $106,000. Indeed also names New York, NY as its highest paying city, at $108,780 a year.

Want to know what each employer asks for in return? Our fraud investigator jobs guide covers the requirements for insurers, banks and agencies.

What Do Government Fraud Investigators Earn?

Federal pay is public, so you can read it before you apply. Many federal investigators are paid on the General Schedule (GS), a scale of grades and steps, with locality pay added for the area where you work. The table shows 2026 base pay and what the Washington-Baltimore locality adds. Base pay is the government-wide figure with no location added.

GS-11 base pay runs from $63,795 to $82,938. The Washington-Baltimore locality payment is 33.94 percent in the 2026 tables, which is why the right-hand column is so much higher.

Federal criminal investigators get one more boost. Criminal investigators in the 1811 job series are eligible for law enforcement availability pay (LEAP) of up to 25 percent of base pay. IRS Criminal Investigation explains that LEAP is a 25 percent increase over the standard pay scale, in exchange for an average 50-hour week.

The same document says new special agents typically enter at grade 7 or grade 9. Our IRS special agent guide covers what that route asks of you.

What Do Inspector General Announcements Show?

Each Office of Inspector General (OIG) hires investigators who look into fraud in its own department. Three announcements show the range. All three have closed, so treat them as examples of pay ranges, not open jobs.

Look at the shape of those ranges. The bottom of the Postal Service band sits close to the claims group’s 25th percentile, while the top of the Justice Department range is far above the BLS 90th percentile. You’re looking at one job family with a very different ceiling.

The catch is the entry path. The Justice Department announcement was open to current employees of its inspector general’s office, and the Postal Service one to current 1811 employees. They show you where a federal career can go, not where it starts.

How Does Pay Grow as You Move Up?

On the General Schedule, you climb in two ways. Within a grade, you advance a step, and your base pay rises. At grade 12, base pay starts at $76,463 and tops out at $99,404.

Between grades, you need experience at the level below. The Interior announcement wanted a year of specialized experience one grade down for its grade 13 job. The Justice Department’s senior job asked for the same, a year at the grade below.

Put the starting base pay of each grade side by side and you can see the ladder. It’s $63,795 at the lowest grade here, then $76,463 and $90,925 as you climb. Locality pay then lifts every rung. The climb is predictable, and you can read the next rung’s pay before you decide to chase it.

In insurance, the ladder is less formal. The BLS says entry-level claims adjusters, examiners and investigators work on small claims under the supervision of an experienced worker, then get larger, more complex claims as they learn more. Ask any employer how that step shows up in your pay.

Does Your State Change a Fraud Investigator Salary?

Yes, by a lot. Among the state medians for the claims group, the District of Columbia is highest at $101,150 and Nevada is lowest at $62,730, a gap of $38,420. Only 22 of 51 state areas have a median above the national $78,000, so you’ll often see numbers below the headline figure.

Where the jobs are matters too. Texas has the most workers in the group at 29,220, with a median of $78,800. Florida follows with 28,100 workers at $76,920.

If you live in California, you’d be one of 24,290 workers with a $91,790 median. In New York, the median is $87,130. The state table below lists every state, so you can find yours and compare it with the national median.

What Raises a Fraud Investigator’s Pay?

Five things move the number, and you can influence most of them.

The employer type. As the BLS table shows, federal government workers in the group have a $93,660 median, and health insurers have $59,800. If your goal is pay, you’ll want to learn which employer types sit at the top.

The federal criminal investigator track. Grade, locality and LEAP all stack for you. A GS-13 in the Washington area starts above $121,000 before any availability pay.

Your location. A move across state lines can add to or subtract from your pay by more than a promotion would.

A credential. The ACFE says CFEs earn a 32 percent premium over non-certified colleagues. In 2024, CFEs with a four-year degree reported $101,000 a year, and those with a graduate degree reported a $112,000 median. Treat those numbers carefully. The guide rests on the 2024 Global Salary Survey of CFEs and associate members, with 4,449 usable responses, and people reported their own pay.

A Reddit thread on r/CFE shows how this question comes up. A former police officer with ten years of investigations experience asked what a fraud investigator earns and whether the credential is worth adding. One reply pointed to the ACFE: “Even as a non-member, you can request latest Compensation Guide for Anti-Fraud Professionals from ACFE.com.” Our CFE salary guide breaks the credential’s effect down further.

A degree that fits the work. You can study the skills these jobs use, from interviewing to evidence handling. Costs vary, so check them against the pay you expect. Four online programs list these amounts per credit.

Across the 65 programs we track, the median cost per credit is $458 for bachelor’s programs and $775 for master’s programs. You can compare more options on our master’s in fraud examination list and our list of forensic accounting degrees sorted by cost.

How Does Fraud Investigator Pay Compare With Related Jobs?

Fraud investigation sits among several jobs with overlapping duties, and you may be weighing more than one. Their medians all come from May 2025 wage data.

If you’re aiming for the highest number in that table, the financial examiner path pays the most, and it leans on bank regulation rather than claims. That’s a different route, with its own requirements, and our fraud examiner career guide explains it.