NIH Salary Cap Changes Effective January 2, 2022

On February 10, 2022, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published updated information regarding the Fiscal Year 2022 salary limitation under NOT-OD-22-076. NIH is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution. The “Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022” (Public Law 117-70) applies the terms and conditions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. These terms and conditions of the Appropriations Act restrict 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 2, 2022, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $203,700.

Proposals

The Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) implemented use of the new salary cap on January 12, 2022, for all new, renewal, supplement, or resubmission NIH proposals. To do so, eProposal was updated to include the new salary cap option: $203,700- FY2021 NIH Salary Cap 01/01/22-Forward.

As a reminder, please be sure to indicate in the budget justifications when personnel are over the salary cap.

Existing Awards

Rebudgeting

The new salary cap may be used for existing awards if adequate funds are available, as described in the NIH Notices. If the increased salary cap is adopted on existing awards, you will be allowed to rebudget funds to accommodate the new cap; however, no additional funding will be provided by the sponsor.

Payroll Processing

Following our normal practice, UCSF will use an effective date of February 1, 2022 (the beginning of the first full calendar month after the effective date of the new cap) for payroll processing using the new salary cap. The HHS cap type in the UCPath system has been updated to $203,700 with an effective date of February 1, 2022.

Adjusting Payroll

To avoid the need for salary cost transfers, please complete funding entry changes in UCPath prior to the February funding entry deadline.

To update payroll funding prospectively, create a new effective-dated funding record using the Salary Cap/MCOP Funding Worksheet and apply the updated “Cap Rate” on appropriate earnings distribution lines. While use of the Faculty Salary Calculator (FSC) worksheet is never required for funding entry, in keeping with past practice the FSC worksheet is being updated to include the new salary cap option, $203,700-FY2022 NIH Cap 01/02/22.

Training materials and additional resources are posted on the Information for Funding Entry Initiators and Approvers and Information for Salary Cost Transfer Initiators and Approvers pages on the UCPath website.

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