NIH Guidance on Salary Limitation

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:28:12 -0500

Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2024

Notice Number: NOT-OD-24-057

Purpose

This Notice provides information regarding the salary limitation for NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards and extramural research and development contract awards.

Since 1990, Congress has legislatively mandated a limitation on direct salary for individuals under NIH grant and cooperative agreement awards (referred to here as a grant). The mandate appears in the annual appropriation act that provides authority for NIH to incur obligations for a given Fiscal Year (FY). At this time, NIH has not received an FY 2024 appropriation and is operating under a Continuing Resolution, the "Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (Public Law 118-22)”, that applies the terms and conditions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale. Effective January 1, 2024, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $221,900.

For active awards, including awards that have been issued in FY 2024 (continuation and new) that were restricted to Executive Level II, if adequate funds are available, and if the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, recipients may rebudget funds to accommodate the current Executive Level II salary level.

Once the Department of Health and Human Services Appropriation for FY 2024 is enacted, NIH will publish the annual Notice of legislative mandates to provide information on any statutory provisions that limit the use of NIH grant funds in FY 2024.

Please refer to the full announcement linked below for more details.

Should you have any questions, please contact the Office of Sponsored Programs.