Applying Salary Caps for UCPath Funding Transactions
This page outlines the steps required to authorize and apply a salary cap before it is available in UCPath for funding entries and salary cost transfers.
Key Concepts
A salary cap establishes a maximum annual rate of pay at which an individual's full time effort over a twelve-month period can be charged for a federal contract, grant, or cooperative agreement. The most notable salary cap that we adhere to at UCSF is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) salary cap which is tied to executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. This pay scale is followed by all DHHS agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A Salary Cap Summary from federal fiscal year 1990 to the present is available on the NIH Grants & Funding website (opens in new window).
Private foundations and organizations may also implement a salary cap. Many follow the DHHS cap while others set limits independently. Examples of non-federal sponsors with salary cap limits are California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Susan G. Komen, and the Cystic Fibrosis Society.
Not all sponsors place limits on salary support. Federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), and many non-federal sponsors do not provide a threshold for annual salary. Therefore, it is important to understand the guidelines of each sponsoring agency when submitting a budget.
How to work with Contracts and Grants Accounting (CGA) to apply salary caps in RAS and UCPath
Three steps are required to authorize and apply a salary cap before it is available in UCPath for funding entries and salary cost transfers:
- A salary cap must first be defined for each award record in the Research Administration System (RAS).
- The sponsor record in RAS must also indicate which salary cap is appropriate under that sponsor. Sponsors that follow the NIH cap are established with the HHS salary cap attribute.
- Salary cap details must be loaded into UCPath, including the cap amount and effective dates. CGA manages all communication with the UC Office of the President, the process owner for loading new cap details into UCPath.
Contact your CGA Service Team member if you believe your award should follow a salary cap but the cap is not indicated in RAS, or if a salary cap on your award in RAS is not available for UCPath funding entry.
- Email [email protected].
- Request that your CGA Service Team member add the missing salary cap in RAS and/or review the sponsor record for the salary cap attribute.
- Provide appropriate documentation including sponsor policy of the cap.