Salary Cap
A federal limit on the rate of salary that can be charged to certain grants, reset periodically by Congress.
Some sponsors, most prominently NIH: cap the annual salary rate that may be charged to an award, tied to a federal Executive Level. When an investigator's institutional base salary exceeds the cap, only the capped amount can be charged to the grant; the remainder must be covered by non-federal funds.
The cap amount is set by appropriations law and changes over time, so budgets and effort need to be recalculated whenever it moves: including mid-project for continuing awards.
Charging above the cap is an audit finding; the over-the-cap salary has to be moved to institutional funds, often retroactively.
Track this in GrantsManager
GrantsManager gives PIs and administrators one real-time view of proposals, awards, budgets, and compliance, so terms like this stop living in spreadsheets.