This disclosure provides systems, methods, and devices for wireless communication that support power headroom differential reporting for reference resource signals transmitted at different transmission power than other uplink transmissions. In a first aspect, a method of wireless communication includes determining a power headroom value, by a user equipment (UE), using a maximum configured transmission power and a transmission power configured for an uplink transmission at a configured modulation and coding scheme (MCS). The UE determines a reference resource signal power headroom value using the maximum configured transmission power and a reference resource signal transmission power configured for a reference resource signal transmission, calculates a reference resource power headroom differential between the power headroom value and the reference resource signal power headroom value, and transmits a report including the uplink transmission power headroom value and the reference resource power headroom differential. Other aspects and features are also claimed and described.