New/Competing Public Health Services (PHS) Proposals:
- Executive Level II salary limitation increased from $189,600 to $192,300 effective January 1, 2019.
- We highly recommend using the Full Institutional Base Salary (IBS) when calculating salary requests in proposals. For more information on preparing proposal budgets with a Salary Cap review Documenting Salary Cap on Proposal Budgets.
- In anticipation that NIH will adopt the new ELII salary level, preparers may choose to use the new $192,300 rate for the NIH salary cap.
- Note: AHRQ has adopted the new ELII level
Existing NIH Awards:
Existing NIH awards will use the previous rate of $189,600, in anticipation that NIH will not make adjustments in funding to accommodate for the new ELII cap.
Effort Reporting on NIH Awards:
- Until NIH formally adopts the new salary cap via notice, the academic cycle 9/16/2018 – 3/15/2019 in eFECS will use the existing salary cap ($189,600). Similarly, for the full calendar cycle 1/1/2019 – 6/30/2019 eFECS will not reflect the salary cap amount of $192,300 until formally adopted by NIH.
- Changing the salary distribution to reflect a greater salary charge to current awards based on the higher 2019 salary cap is the PI’s decision. We do not anticipate sponsors will adjust funding commitments.
- Charging an existing grant based on the new threshold is optional and should not be done without PI consent and/or simply for the convenience of matching how eFECS is handling the change.
- If NIH adoption of a higher salary cap ($192,300) is effective later than the date a unit starts charging the grant at the higher salary cap level, it will be necessary for units to adjust their charges to grants accordingly.