Where to make the biggest bucks working in IT

IT workers chasing the big bucks should pay close attention to which sector they choose to work in.

The best paid sectors for IT staff are the legal and finance sectors, where the average annual salary for an IT worker is £42,832, according to new research.

Techies in these industries collect about £8,000 more than the £35,452 paid to their counterparts working in government, education and health, who are the lowest paid IT professionals.

This discrepancy in salary is particularly striking for database and infrastructure managers, who are earning about £12,000 more per year in the legal and finance sectors than those working in government, education and health.

The second highest rewards go to those working in the IT, web and telecom sectors, where IT workers take home £42,360 each year.

The next highest rewards can be found in the media, marketing and sales sectors, where annual pay stands at £38,863; and manufacturing, services and others where it reaches £36,277.

(Image credit: silicon.com)

Matthew Iverson, director of IT recruitment company CVScreen, said the highest earners will have to work harder for their pay.

"In the finance sector the salaries are higher but they will extract their pound of flesh - it is a very competitive environment and people will be expected to put in more hours than other sectors," he told silicon.com.

"There are benefits attached to working in the government sector," he added. "You have greater job security, better benefits and longer holidays."

On average the highest earners across all sectors are database managers, who earn £41,743 each year and the lowest are desktop support and software engineers who are paid £36,681.

Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK, said salaries for IT roles across all sectors still compare favourably to those of other professions.

"In the first quarter of 2009 full time IT staff were earning, on average, approximately £730 per week before tax - around 41 per cent more than the workforce as a whole. With these pay levels remaining well above the UK average, IT continues to be a desirable and well-rewarded occupation."

activeTechPros, part of silicon.com's parent company CBS Interactive, allows tech professionals to benchmark their salary against their peers from different countries, covering a total of 36 IT job functions across various countries, industries and company sizes. For more information and to use the benchmark wizard, visit activetechpros.com.