February 3, 2026

NIH Executive Level II Salary Cap 2026

NIH released notice of the increase in the Executive Level II Salary Cap on January 28th NOT-OD-26-034, to $228,000 with an effective date of January 1st, 2026.

Due to NIH’s delay in releasing the annual notice implementing the updated cap level, the new cap was not applied to payroll on impacted sponsored awards for pay periods from January 1, 2026, through January 31, 2026.

The new NIH Executive Level II Salary Cap will be effective in Workday on applicable sponsored awards for pay periods beginning February 1, 2026.

For impacted sponsored awards, payroll from January 1 through January 31 will have the prior/old cap level applied in Workday. To charge applicable sponsored awards up to the new salary cap for pay periods prior to February 1, 2026, a Payroll Accounting Adjustment (“PAA”) must be processed.

Beginning with payroll period February 1 – 15, 2026, Workday will apply the higher cap to all applicable awards. Per NIH policy, NIH will not provide additional funds to cover the higher cap level. If adequate funds are not available to support the higher cap level, a manual adjustment via a PAA would be required to adjust the amount of salary charged to the award.

For information on documenting salary cap on proposal budgets, please review: How do I document salary cap on proposal budgets?

If you have any questions, please contact gcafco@uw.edu.