Spain’s royals take pay cuts in austerity drive

MADRID  Spain’s king and crown prince are taking pay cuts as part of the latest round  of austerity measures meted out by the country’s government as it attempts to  control its deficit during a recession, the Royal Palace  said Tuesday. (Source: persianrealm.com)

The  salaries of King Juan Carlos  and Crown Prince Felipe will be reduced about 7 percent — to about €272,000  ($334,000) and €131,000 ($160,000) respectively — in line with the new  austerity package, the Royal Palace said.

The  royal family itself has about €8.3 million budgeted for it this year, down 2  percent from 2011. Queen Sofia  and Princess Letizia, Felipe’s wife, don’t get salaries but saw their expenses  cut. Palace officials did not provide details, and the royal family budget cuts  came a year after 2011 reductions of 5 percent overall with palace employees  including the king seeing their salaries cut up to 15 percent.

The  king and prince acted voluntarily this year in cutting their salaries, the  Royal Palace said. The announcement came as the Spanish royal family’s public  profile has taken a battering over the past year, and just as Spain’s economy  entered its second recession in three years and unemployment rose to nearly 25 percent, the highest in the eurozone.

Austerity bites deeper in Spain (Euronews):

Spain’s government has announced further deep budget cuts for this year in its increasingly unpopular austerity drive, one day after an anti-austerity general strike paralysed Spain.  All ministries will have their spending slashed by just under 17 percent. (March 30th, 2012)
 

Wage Cut Protest in Spain (AP, July 13th 2012):

Spanish civil servants took to the streets Friday in angry protest as the government approved new sweeping austerity measures that include wage cuts and tax increases. (July 13)

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WAGE CUT FOR SPAIN’s ROYALS

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Spain royal family follows public sector wage cut (bbc)

Spain’s King Juan Carlos and his family are to take a pay cut following a recent bitterly contested cut to public sector wages, the royal palace says.

The king will lose 20,900 euros (£16,400; $25,660) from his salary of just over 292,000 euros for the year – a cut of 7.1%.

In total, the 8.3m euro royal budget will be cut by 100,000 euros in 2012.

Public sector workers have been outraged by a recent announcement that Christmas bonuses are to go.

The bonuses saw public sector workers paid double their usual salaries in December, and their removal equates to a cut of about 7%.

Police and firefighters are among those who have taken to the streets in recent days to denounce the cuts – the latest austerity measures imposed by the government amid a steep economic downturn.

Mixed réception

The reputation of the once-revered king was damaged in April when it emerged he had been on a lavish hunting trip to Botswana at a time when one in four Spaniards is unemployed.

His son and heir, Prince Felipe, will lose about 10,450 euros from his salary – also about 7.1% – putting him on an annual wage of about 131,000 euros, said palace sources.

But the gesture has received a mixed reception on websites and social media, with some quipping that the royal family might now struggle to make ends meet.

Spain’s royals take pay cuts in austerity drive

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