Interim Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants, Cooperative Agreements and Contracts

Notice Number: NOT-OD-07-033

Update: The following update relating to this announcement has been issued:

  • February 22, 2007 - See Notice (NOT-OD-07-051) Update on Salary Limitation on Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Contracts.

Key Dates
Release Date: January 4, 2007

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH) (http://www.nih.gov)

For the past eighteen years Congress has legislatively mandated a limitation on direct salary for individuals under NIH grant, cooperative agreement and contract awards (referred to here as a grant). The mandate appears in the annual appropriation act that provides authority for the NIH to incur obligations for a given Fiscal Year (FY). At this time NIH has not received a FY 2007 appropriation, and is operating under a Continuing Resolution that applies the terms of the FY 2006 Appropriation Act.

The FY 2006 Appropriation Act (P.L. 109-149) restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level I of the Federal Executive Pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management has recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay scale. Effective January 1, 2007, the salary limitation for Executive Level 1 is $186,600. For a historical record of the salary cap, including effective dates see: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/salcap_summary.htm

Once the Department of Health and Human Services Appropriation for FY 2007 is enacted, NIH will publish the annual Notice of legislative mandates to provide information on any statutory provisions that limit the use of NIH grant funds in FY 2007. Final guidance on the salary cap will be provided at that time.

Inquiries Questions concerning this notice or other policies relating to grants or contracts should be directed to the grants management or contract management office in the appropriate NIH Institute or Center. For more information on grants policy, please visit: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/policy.htm.

For more information on contracts policy, please visit: http://ocm.od.nih.gov/contracts/contract.htm.