Salary

• Most body language experts work as independent contractors, performing consultation work for various businesses that are looking for guidance on issues concerning nonverbal communication. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics includes salary data for these private consultants under the industry heading of Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services. As of 2008, federal statistics indicated that the median salary for nonsupervisory workers in this industry was $913 per week, or about $47,476 per year. Business operations specialists in this industry, including body language experts, earned a median hourly salary of $27.99 per hour as of May 2008.
  
  

Employment

• To become a body language expert, most individuals embark on a varied career that includes many different jobs that involve observation of nonverbal communication, including counseling services, theater or teaching. When a body language specialist has built up enough experience and knowledge, he can open his own independent consultation firm and contract out to individuals and businesses requiring his services. Many body language experts improve their business prospects by publicizing themselves through public speaking opportunities or publishing articles within their chosen field of expertise.
  
  

Certification

• Although there are various ways to enter the independent consulting industry that don't include college, many body language experts earn their Bachelor's degree or Master's degree in a related field, such as Behavioral Sciences. Within the narrow field of Body Language, there are professional certifications that can be earned which signal an individual as an expert. For example, the private Body Language Institute certification program offers individual professional certification for both Body Language Specialists and Body Language Experts. Both of these certification programs require coursework in nonverbal communication, test examinations and instruction of nonverbal communication precepts to other students.
  
  

Other Body Language Experts

• Many other professions that don't involve private consultation also require a great deal of body language knowledge and interpretation. Interpreters and translators, especially those with an expertise in sign language, often must be able to deduce communicative clues through body language. These workers earned an average salary of $49,790 per year, or $23.94 per hour, as of May 2010. Police officers and detectives, especially those involved with suspect interrogation, must be body language experts to determine when a subject is lying or telling the truth. According to federal statistics, detectives and criminal investigators working during 2010 made an average salary of $73,010 per year, or $35.10 per hour.