Announcement: Since 1990, Congress has legislatively mandated a limitation on direct salary for individuals under NIH awards. The mandate appears in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260), signed into law on December 27, 2020, which provides authority for NIH to incur obligations for Fiscal Year 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 recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale. Effective January 3, 2021, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $199,300.
For issued awards that were restricted to Executive Level II, including competing awards already issued in FY2021, 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.
For more information, please see NIH Notice NOT-OD-21-057 or visit the Department of Contracts and Grant’s Budget Development webpage.
Questions? If you have any questions about the new NIH salary cap, please feel free to contact your DCG Officer