Palace austerity: royal family assumes public service pay cut

After being cut down by a public outcry over his elephant-hunting jaunt to Botswana in the middle of a brutal recession, King Juan Carlos has decided to cut back the expenditure of the Royal Household. The monarch and the crown prince, Felipe, will assume a salary cut of 7.1 percent this year in line with the royal decree published in the Official State Bulletin last Saturday concerning wage reductions for public servants.

The king will thus see his salary fall 20,000 euros from 292,752 euros, while the prince will take a 10,000-euro hit on his annual 141,376 pay packet. The monarch also announced a 100,000-euro reduction to the Royal Household’s annual budget, following the 170,000-euro cut laid out in the state budget. The allowance for public appearances by Queen Sofía, Princess Letizia, Princess Elena and Princess Cristina will also be reduced by 7.1 percent, while the same decrease will also be applied to high-office holders in royal employ.

In the past decade, the budget for the Royal Household has increased by a total of 18 percent, half the amount of the state budget. After being frozen in 2010, the royal allowance has fallen year-on-year.

In December 2011, after the hunting débâcle, the Royal Household made its accounts public for the first time since 1979.