How does bounty hunters get paid

Like a lot of people getting into the bail enforcement game, you want to know what you can expect to make. Given the nature of the payment arrangements, there are no official statistics on bounty hunter income in the United States. What we do know is that the average commission rate for bounty hunters is between 10 and 25 percent of the bond.

Add a zero to that bond, and you can add a zero to the commission too. All bondsmen agree, ponying up a 25 percent commission and getting 75 percent of their money back is better than cheaping it by hiring a newbie and getting 90 percent of nothing. Eventually, you can even put your own team of trusted and talented bail agents together and start spreading the work around, sharing commissions on bigger bonds and more work than you could handle on your own.

If you branch out to inter-state or even international skip tracing, that can mean a lot more opportunity and a lot more money. Your earning potential as a bounty hunter depends on the number of bails set by the courts, the number of defendants who enter into a contract with a bail bondsman, and then finally the number of those defendants who fail to show up for their court appearance.

Therefore, the more bonds secured by the bail bondsman, the greater the odds that an opportunity will present itself. Bail amounts vary widely according to crime more specifically, the severity of the crime and the flight risk of the defendant, in most cases. A report by The Hamilton Project found that the number of pre-trail detainees and the amount of bail they pay has increased dramatically since the s:. Salaries for bounty hunters are as varied as the profession itself, with some bounty hunters making well into the six figures and others simply taking on bounty hunting as a second source of income.

However, the market may be oversaturated in terms of the number of bail agents. In addition, the bounty hunter must be proficient in other skills such as detecting deceit, surveillance, skip tracing and negotiation.

A bounty hunter must also know how to research and investigate missing persons. In other words, a bounty hunter must have good investigative skills.

A full time bounty hunter will usually work directly with a bail bondsman. The percentage is a fee usually around 10 percent and is non-refundable. This inherently dangerous yet highly lucrative assignment captures the imagination of would-be bond recovery agents that are looking for the necessary information in this seemingly tight-lipped, secretive industry.

The sheer thrill of tracking someone down through cutting-edge investigative techniques, then executing a plan to capture the fugitive is something that cannot be described. This is where a bounty hunter makes his mark on the world, and their salary. The bondsman hires a bounty hunter to track the jumper and recover his property, so to speak. Their profit is then zeroed out because the fee they charged to the bounty hunter.

It is a win win situation for all parties involved. Location, Location, Location! The location factor is one of the largest of influences on a salary of a bounty hunter. By their own accounts, bounty hunters are more effective than the police. According to the National Association of Bail Enforcement Agents , they nab nearly 90 percent of all bail jumpers. Sign up for our Newsletter!

Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Legal System. Law Enforcement. By: Stephanie Watson. Adventure Hunting Regulations Is wolf hunting legal?