Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements
Notice Number: NOT-OD-22-076
Release Date: February 10, 2022
Related Announcements: NOT-OD-22-045 – NIH Operates Under a Continuing Resolution; NOT-OD-21-058 – Notice of Fiscal Policies in Effect for FY 2021; NOT-OD-21-057 – Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements FY 2021
Issued by: NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)
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 2022 appropriation and is operating under a Continuing Resolution, the “Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022” (Public Law 117-70), that applies the terms and conditions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale and effective January 2, 2022, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $203,700.
For active awards, including awards that have been issued in FY 2022 (continuation and new), that were restricted to the previous Executive Level II, if adequate funds are available in active awards, 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 2022 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 2022.
For examples of Salary Application Requests, Salary Cap Calculations and Adjustments, see the full notice NOT-OD-22-076.
Inquiries: Questions about specific awards may be directed to the Grants Management Specialist identified on the Notice of Award. Questions related to the NIH salary cap policy may be directed to the Division of Grants Policy at: grantspolicy@nih.gov.
