I think these statistics and the conclusions derived are bit skewed. When someone tries to correlate one certification to a specific salary, it is almost impossible. I think the high salaries of the admittedly less technical (Cisco certs. for ex. are much tougher than the CISSP) and more managerial certifications (i.e. PMP, CISSP) can better be attributed to another commonality of people with the CISSP and/or the PMP. The people (like myself) who have these certifications are general IT managers, and have myriad other skills, education (Bachelor's in EE, IT or CS, Master's, MBA's) and experience in addition to the certifications. For most (I can't say all) of the people I speak with with these certs, they have other professional and technical certs., and the CISSP and/or PMP are icing on the cake (both the CISSP and PMP require more experience without bachelor's degree). Conversely, I have met CCIE's who have many cisco cets, and not much else. They do very well for themselves too.