From what I know/have seen/have heard, generally, companies see IT departments as cost centres, rather than something that adds business value.
I liked this quote on joeware.net:
“[Computers] will just get more and more important and if you intend to simply coast on whatever talent you get for some poor pay, you deserve everything that happens. I have no problem hearing that tech specialists make more than their managers. IMO, in many cases they should make considerably more. It is the tech specialists who keep your company’s tech running efficiently.”
Joeware.net has some great free IT Pro tools btw 🙂