The average salary of technology workers in the United States last year slipped to $67,800 from $69,600, a 2.6% decline, according to a survey of 23,000 tech professionals released Wednesday by Dice Inc., an online job-posting service. Such low pay levels haven't been seen since before 2001.

Still, segments of the IT profession have experienced higher pay. IT managers experienced the largest salary gain last year, increasing 1.2% to $77,900. Since 2001, Dice reports, salaries for tech managers have increased 11%.

Among the highest-paying titles, which remained identical to 2003, are IT management professionals, who earned an average of $101,500, and project-management pros, who took in an average $85,700.

Top-paying skills last year included expertise in enterprise-resource-planning applications, at $80,600, and Sybase software, at $77,200, the analysis of Dice data revealed. Full-time workers with Unix and C/C++ expertise, the skills most requested on Dice.com, reported earning $75,500 and $66,100, respectively.

At the other end of the pay spectrum, salaries last year for PC technicians and help-desk professionals fell 10.4% to $33,600 and 9.5% to $35,300, respectively.

For the third straight year, tech workers in government and defense had the biggest salary growth, 2.9% to $66,500. Despite a 2.4% decline, the highest-paid IT pro worked in financial services, with an average salary of $77,700.

"Salaries are still feeling the impact of the tech slowdown of 2002 and 2003," Dice CEO Scot Melland said in a statement. "Now that demand is picking up, we anticipate seeing salaries rise as the labor markets tighten."

Other findings from the Dice study:

• Men continued to earn about 11% more than women in IT. The gap varied by industry: Women's salaries ranged from on par to men's in computer hardware to 17% less in banking and finance. The financial gender gap was lowest for women who entered the tech market during the dot-com boom years: They earned just 1.4% less than their male counterparts last year.

• Salaries rose by 3.6% in Washington, D.C., 2.6% in Atlanta, and 1.1% in Southern California. These metro areas have also seen significant growth in job postings on the Dice site from December 2003 to December 2004, up 93%, 140%, and 74%, respectively. Despite salary declines last year, Silicon Valley and New York remained the two top-paying markets, with average salaries of $84,200 and $76,500, respectively. Atlanta replaced Boston as the third-highest-paying market in 2004 with an average salary of $75,500. Atlanta and San Diego are the only major metro areas to have salaries increase since 2001, up 5% and 3.5%, respectively.

• Earning power increases with age and experience. The average salary for IT pros between 18 and 24 was $34,400, while technology professionals over 50 reported average salaries of $79,000.