The latest IT salary survey holds a valuable lesson for all tech employees: It’s all in the name.

Average salaries vary widely across industries, it’s important that you know which title offers the best money in each one. So which IT leaders make the most?

It depends on how you do your calculations. The highest average salary is that of a senior IT exec in the wholesale and retail industries at $193,077. The average salary of someone with that position in health care is $175,293. But if you look at the median salary for that title in health care, the salary is $170,00, while median salaries in wholesale/retail are lower, at $165,000.

The survey, conducted among readers of SearchCIO.com and SearchCIO-Midmarket.com in the fourth quarter of 2009 via email, collected info from 952 IT execs in 21 industries and all regions of the U.S.

It defined a senior IT executive as having a title of vice president, executive vice president, senior vice president, CIO, chief technology officer or chief information security officer. Mid-level IT executives were defined as those at the director level, and IT managers were categorized as having one or more direct reports.

Mid-level IT execs and IT managers earned best in the financial services industry,

Who fared worst? That would be government workers.

In fact, the pay differential between a CIO or Senior level IT exec in the wholesale/retail industry and government was huge, with the former averaging total compensation of over $193,000 and the latter pulling down a mere $113,000.

Worst paid of all: IT managers in education.

To take a look at the survey’s results, visit here.

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