New DHHS Salary Cap Guidance

On January 22, 2025, the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) released NOT-HS-25-015 which gave notice of the new salary cap effective January 1, 2025.

The AHRQ salary cap increases to $225,700.

The AHRQ notice states:

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 restricts the amount of direct salary to Executive Level II of the Federal Executive pay scale. The Office of Personnel Management recently released new salary levels for the Executive Pay Scale. Effective January 1, 2025, the salary limitation for Executive Level II is $225,700.

For active [AHRQ] awards, including awards that have been issued in FY 2025 (continuation and new) that were restricted to Executive Level II, if adequate funds are available, and if the salary cap increase is consistent with the institutional base salary, recipients may rebudget funds to accommodate the current Executive Level II salary level.

OSP recommends that outgoing proposals for awards subject to the DHHS salary cap, including NIH, use the new Executive Level II amount of $225,700.   

Active DHHS awards from non-AHRQ institutes or agencies should not rebudget to accommodate the higher salary level. This guidance related to rebudgeting applies only to AHRQ.