On April 3, 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released NOT-OD-25-085 (opens in new window), officially adopting the 2025 Executive Level II salary cap of $225,700, effective January 1, 2025. This replaces the previous cap of $221,900.
At the same time, NOT-OD-25-084 (opens in new window) confirms that NIH continues to operate under the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, (Public Law 119-4(opens in new window)), which maintains FY 2024 funding levels through September 30, 2025, with no budget reductions.
To ensure a smooth adoption of the new NIH Salary cap, the following guidelines have been established.
Implementation Guidance
1. Proposals:
- The Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) implemented the use of the new salary cap on January 7, 2025, for all new, renewal, supplement, and resubmission NIH proposals. To do so, eProposal was updated to include the new salary cap option: $225,700- FY2025 NIH Salary Cap 01/01/25-Forward.
- As a reminder, please be sure to indicate in the budget justifications when personnel are over the salary cap.
2. Existing Awards:
- PeopleSoft/RAS - The Salary Cap of $225,700 will be added on April 14, 2025, to all PeopleSoft/RAS awards that were capped at $221,900 with a 1/1/2024 effective date.
- 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 - UCSF will use an effective date of January 1, 2025 for payroll processing using the new salary cap. The HHS cap type in the UCPath system was already updated to $225,700 with an effective date of January 1, 2025.
- Adjusting Payroll - To avoid salary cost transfers as much as possible, please complete funding entry changes in UCPath as soon as possible prior to the April funding entry deadline. To retroactively adjust the January through March payroll to reflect the new salary cap, please submit a Salary Cost Transfer using standard practices. While the use of the Faculty Salary Calculator (FSC) worksheet (opens in new window) is not required for funding entry, it is already updated to reflect the new salary cap.
Contacts
- For questions regarding the application of the new salary cap to proposals, email [email protected].
- For questions regarding the application of the new salary cap to existing awards, contact the CGA Compliance Service Desk.
- Funding Entry and Salary Cost Transfer Initiators and Approvers should contact the Controller’s Office Solution Center directly for support updating funding distributions in UCPath.