A method for reporting power headroom is disclosed. Power headroom may be reported across all carriers (wideband), for a specific carrier, or for a carrier group. The formula used to calculate the power headroom depends on whether the carrier (or a carrier in the carrier group) has a valid uplink grant. If the carrier or carrier group does not have a valid uplink grant, the power headroom may be calculated based on a reference grant. The power headroom is calculated by a wireless transmit/receive unit and is reported to an eNodeB.