NIH Salary Cap

The current NIH salary cap is $221,900 for those on 12-month appointments, effective 1/1/24. Please note the Executive Pay Scale is updated annually, on or after, January 1^st.

STEP 1 - To apply the NIH salary cap to personnel in your budget, you should start by accessing the Kuali Salary Guide found here. In the Kuali Salary Guide, navigate to the NIH Salary Cap tab at the bottom of the Excel spreadsheet.

STEP 3 - For this example, we will use a faculty member ‘Serena Williams’ who has a 9-month base salary of $155,000.

Enter the Total Academic, Summer, and/or Calendar Effort (as applicable) for each fiscal year (budget period) involved in the project in the green columns under Academic and Summer Calculation.

In this example, the faculty member will be dedicating 11.11% Academic (1 academic month) and 33.33% Summer (1 summer month) in each budget period.

Based on this example, the table above now shows the amount of effort to be charged to the sponsor as well as the total effort committed to the project per year.

STEP 4 - In Kuali, navigate to your Budget, and click Personnel Costs, then Assign Personnel to Periods. Starting with the academic entries, click Details.

STEP 5 - On the Details screen, input the Total Effort from the green column under Academic Calculation into the Effort box, if you have not already done so. Then, enter the Effort Charged to Sponsor from the blue column under Academic Calculation into the Charged box. Click Save Changes.

In this example, we have already entered the effort for Serena and we are simply changing the Charged amount from 11.11 to 10.13, per the spreadsheet.

After saving, you will notice an amount next to Cost Sharing Amount. This is the portion of the salary and fringe that is over the salary cap and must be cost shared. Repeat the same process for the second Academic entry, if necessary.

Now, move down to the relevant Summer entries. Click Details

Repeat the process above using the effort amounts from the Summer Calculation section of the spreadsheet.

In our example, we are replacing the Charged amount with 30.40, per the spreadsheet. Click Save Changes.

Repeat the same process for the second Summer entry, if necessary.

Repeat the process for the rest of your personnel over the cap as well as subsequent budget periods – moving down one fiscal year on the spreadsheet for each budget period.

STEP 6 - Once you have finished adjusting the charged effort for all relevant personnel entries in each budget period, save, then click Budget Versions at the top right.

STEP 7 - If you have been working with multiple versions of the budget, select the correct one and click Action next to it. If you only have one version, click Action.

STEP 8 - From the drop-down menu, select Print.

STEP 9 - Next, click the checkbox under Select to the far right of Budget Cost Share Summary Report. Then click Print at the bottom right. This will give you a PDF breakdown of the cost share in your budget, which will assist you with the next step.

STEP 10 - Save the Budget Cost Share Summary Report PDF to your desktop (See below).

STEP 11 - Once you have your cost sharing summary PDF saved, click Institutional Commitments on the left side of the screen and select Cost Sharing from the drop-down menu.

STEP 12 - There will be one cost share entry for each budget period. Best practice is to delete all fields and rebuild by adding a line for each cost sharing type per year – select the trash can icon at the right of the screen. This helps keep the annual cost sharing batched together. If the original cost sharing lines are not deleted, it will end up out of order.

Note: If you enter the budget periods in reverse order (starting with the last year) it will end up in chronological sequence. It is also acceptable to begin your data entry with the first budget period, but it will show your last entry as the first line. In the sample below, data entry begins with the 1^st budget period and therefore will show in reverse chronological order.

Review Cost Share Type drop-down options.

Unit Details: This is the department ID.

Source Account: This is the speed-type account number.

After deleting each line, the screen should look like this:

STEP 13 - Open the cost sharing summary report PDF and review period one (see below).

Add up the academic year salary totals in the cost share column. In this case, we have $1,350.22 and

$172.15. Then add the fringe benefits in the cost share column. We have $617.25. That brings us to

$2,139.62.

Note: For the NIH salary cap purposes, because summer fringe is typically a small amount, you can leave it merged with the academic year fringe as done in the sample below, or you can opt to break it out.

NOTE: In this example, there is only one person over the cap. If you have multiple personnel over the cap, and their academic salary over the cap will come from different state accounts, you need to do this step for each person.

STEP 14 - In Kuali, click Add Cost Sharing on the top left.

STEP 15 - Select Period 1, then enter the 2,139.62 in the Amount box. This is the academic salary and all fringe (including fringe on summer if you elect that route – or tease out summer fringe and build in with summer salary over the cap) over the cap for period 1. Select NIH Salary Cap (State – AY) from the Cost Share Type drop-down menu. Add the speed type to the Source Account box. Finally, click Add.

When you are finished with the first entry, your cost sharing screen will look like this. Note that the Total Unallocated has gone down. You want that total unallocated to be $0 when all cost sharing has been data entered for all appropriate line items for each year.

STEP 16 - Repeat the steps above for any other personnel over the cap whose period 1 academic salary over the cap will be covered by a different Source Account.

Now, go back to the cost share summary report PDF, add up the summer salary totals in the cost share column for period 1. In this case, we have $1,534.02. (See below)

NOTE: If the faculty member has opted to waive their summer salary over the cap, enter the appropriate waived salary into the cost share type NIH Salary Cap (waived summer). Do not complete the Source Account or Unit Details fields.

Be sure to upload the PI waiver memo in the Internal tab in Attachments.

STEP 17 - PDF budget – review summer salary over the cap.

STEP 18 - In Kuali, click Add Cost Sharing on the top left again. Select Period 1, then enter 1,534.02 in the Amount box. This is the summer salary over the cap for period 1. Select NIH Salary Cap (RTF – SU) from the Cost Share Type drop-down menu. Add the speed type to the Source Account box. Finally, click Add. The Source Account will typically be the PI’s RTF speed type account number.

STEP 19 – Next, include the Approver(s) of the Source Account in the Comment section, and ensure the individual is included in the Routing Map. Repeat the steps above for any other personnel over the cap whose period 1 summer salary over the cap will be covered by a different RTF account.

STEP 20 - Repeat the steps above for the remaining budget periods. Once you are finished adding the academic and summer entries for each person over the cap, your screen will look like this:

STEP 21 - Notice that there are still a significant amount of unallocated funds. In our example, we have $8,038.50 remaining. These are the indirect costs associated with the salary and fringe over the cap. Verify that this number matches the indirect total in the cost sharing summary report PDF by adding the cost share indirect costs from each period:

Budget Period 2

Budget Period 3

In our example, we have $2,185.82, $2,668.91, and $3,183.77, which total $8,038.50, so we did all of the math correctly, and we can now allocate the indirect costs.

STEP 22 - Click Add Cost Sharing. Select Period 1, and put the indirect amount, in our case $8,038.50, in the Amount box. For Source Account, type N/A. In the Cost Share Type drop-down menu, select Associated Indirect Costs. Finally, click Add.

If you have done everything correctly, you should have $0 in unallocated.