NIH Announces FY2026 Salary Cap Increase

NIH issued policy notice NOT-OD-26-034 on January 28, 2026 to formally recognize the increase in the Executive Level II salary cap for Federal FY2026, as required by Congressional appropriations legislation (while announced by NIH, the appropriations language applies to all of DHHS, and Duke applies the increased salary cap level to all DHHS-funded grants, cooperative agreements, OTAs and subawards). 

Effective January 11, 2026, the Federal salary limitation for the Executive Level II designation is $228,000 (for those with a full-time 12-month appointment; the salary cap for faculty with 9-month academic appointments is $171,000). Within Duke’s systems and procedures, this increased salary cap amount will be implemented with an effective date of February 1, 2026; there will not be a retroactive review of payroll charged prior to February 1. A reminder - DHHS-funded contracts and subcontracts do not allow for increasing salary cap values and must be managed according to the effective salary cap amount when the contract was issued. Duke’s payroll cost share tool will automatically manage the calculations and postings to ensure the correct salary cap level is applied to all DHHS-funded mechanisms throughout their period of performance. 

NIH continues to maintain a summary page of all historical salary cap levels and policy notices, available here; while the current FY2026 notice does not provide sample calculations, the FY2024 notice linked from their summary page includes a set of detailed tables illustrating the salary cap in multiple situations.

Please access guidance in MRP on applying the new salary cap for proposals and awards.

From Duke Office for Research & Innovation (OR&I)