Where's the money? London, San Fran

If you want to make lots of money as an IT exec, head to London or San Francisco. In those leading cities, the paychecks are bigger for IT workers, up to 33 percent more than the U.S. average, according to PayScale, a website that gathers information on salaries.

Pay for IT jobs remains strong at companies that are eliminating staff, since employees who keep their jobs "often are more senior people who cost a bit more" and work longer hours, says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. "I wouldn't expect to see any downward trends in pay in these jobs."

And here are some facts to bolster the case. In the Bay area, Google and computer makers such as Apple pay software development managers $136,000 a year. The lowest paid IT jobs in San Francisco are help desk specialists who earn $53,300, according to PayScale. It's somewhat lower in other parts of the country, but still pretty good. In Seattle, home to Microsoft and Amazon.com, software developers make an average of $88,400, higher than in most places.

But everyone knows that a storm is coming, no matter where you are working. "I expect annual increases will be much more modest" next year, Lee says.

For more on where the pay is:
- check out this BusinessWeek.com article [1]

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Top CIOs still make big bucks [2]
Salary survey: Dot-com bubble was a cakewalk compared to current job market [3]
IT's go-go days are gone [4]