NIH Pay Information
Base Pay Rates
Title 5
General Schedule (GS) and Wage Grade (WG): Pay systems for the majority of NIH employees, authorized under Title 5, and including the General Schedule (GS/GM) and Wage Grade (WG/WS/WL) pay plans.
Senior, Executive & Scientific (ES/SL/ST): Senior Level and Scientific or Professional (SL/ST). The employment system that applies to any positions that are classified above GS-15 and involve executive management and high policy-making responsibilities. SES positions are excluded from the competitive service, the system of rules and regulations that applies to most civil service positions.
Title 38
Title 38 Physician and Dentist Pay (PDP): A hybrid pay authority intended to recruit and retain highly qualified physicians and dentists by providing a mechanism to compensate them at levels comparable to private sector physicians and dentists within the same locality area. This pay authority establishes a 2-component system of pay for HHS physicians and dentists consisting of Title 5 General Schedule (GS) base pay and Title 38 market pay, and replaces the previous Title 38 - Physician Specialty Pay (PSP) system authorized for use at the NIH in 1993.
Title 38 Nurses and Allied Health Professionals: Higher base pay scales authorized for nurses (pay plan GN) and allied health professionals (pay plans GS,GM) when necessary to address documented recruitment/retention problems and to provide rates that are competitive with the relevant labor market.
Title 42
Title 42 Section 209 (f) and (g): Title 42 Section 209 (f) and (g) is used to employ doctoral level scientists at a range of career levels, from fellows to the most senior research investigators and scientific leaders. The Title 42 Pay Model establishes policy and procedures for determining initial pay and performance-based pay adjustments for Title 42 staff. 2009 TItle 42 pay information will be published when it becomes available.
The IC Director/NIH Deputy Director Compensation Model enables NIH to determine appropriate pay for senior scientific leadership positions based on multiple factors and provides for distinctions between IC Director/NIH Deputy positions and other NIH leadership positions
Senior Biomedical Research Service (RS): The Senior Biomedical Research Service (SBRS) is designed for scientists who are considered by their peers to be outstanding in their work, and who are engaged in either peer-reviewed, original, biomedical research, or clinical research evaluation. SBRS members’ pay may be set from a GS-15, step 1, to Executive Level I.
Clinical Research Support (CRS): A Title 42 excepted service employment system for Clinical Center (CC) employees engaged in direct or indirect clinical research patient care services.
Premium Pay
Premium Pay: A variety of payments paid in addition to an employee's rate of basic pay for approved overtime, call-back, night, holiday, or Sunday work, and when authorized, for Saturday work and on-call duty.
AAMC Compensation Data for 2006-2007 (NIH Only)
- AAMC Data for M.D. Faculty - Basic Science (.pdf)
- AAMC Data for M.D. Faculty - Clinical Science (.pdf)
- AAMC Data for Ph.D. Faculty - Basic Science (.pdf)
- AAMC Data for Ph.D. Faculty - Clinical Science (.pdf)
