Prince William has come under fire for the size of his "paycheck" after anti-monarchy campaigners argued he has an effective $160,000 per hour salary.
Republic calculated the eye-watering sum based on the number of public engagements the future king has completed so far in 2023.
However, there may be a flaw in the organization's reasoning as the time William spends on visits is not the sum total of his work.
The campaigners to abolish the monarchy also framed the cash as "taxpayers money," which is debatable.
The palace would also likely object to the use of the word "pay" as property estate the Duchy of Cornwall's website states: "The revenue from his estate is used to fund the public, private and charitable activities of The Duke and his immediate family."
Graham Smith, Republic's chief executive, said in a statement: "William likes to claim he works hard, adding one issue after another to his list of missions. First he'll tackle Middle East peace, then the environment and now homelessness. The truth is he barely works at all.
"It takes a deep sense of entitlement and a complete lack of serious scrutiny for William, Kate and the others to rake in multi-million pound fortunes, to enjoy the status and privileges of their positions while doing so little."
Newsweek approached Kensington Palace for comment.
Prince William completed 172 royal engagements in 2023, according to analysis of the court circular, and has an annual income through the Duchy of Cornwall of £22 million (around $27.5 million) adding up to £127,000 (roughly $160,000) per engagement completed by him.
Kate Middleton carried out 123 engagements, though the Duchy's income also funds her activities, meaning these engagements should have been included in the calculation.
"Kate does so little it doesn't make a huge difference," Smith told Newsweek. "Also, we were quite generous in the hours because some engagements that appear on the court circular are 20 minutes long. So we were quite generous on the hours.
"What they're talking about is funding their engagements and then on top of that they can spend it on whatever they want."
Republic's account of the £22 million as taxpayers money is not straightforward as the Duchy was never brought into public ownership by Parliament, though British lawmakers have considered such a move at points throughout history.
The palace tend to view it as a private estate that generates money to support the function of the monarchy and that it is owned by whoever holds the office of the Prince of Wales.
"The people who don't regard it as a public asset are the royals but there is plenty of historic evidence that it is," Smith said.
It is the Sovereign Grant, a percentage of profits from the Crown Estate, a separate property portfolio, that is usually referred to as the monarchy's public funding.
Also, the palace would argue the time spent out in public doing engagements is not the entirety of a royal's working hours, not least of all because each of those engagements must be planned in advance.
"There's no evidence of that [extra hours worked]," Smith said. "There's no output that suggests they've spent any time at desks or in meetings and even if they doubled the time it's still less than five months work in a year."
Some activities do not find their way onto the court circular, as Prince Harry complained about bitterly in his book, Spare.
"Alas, my family at that moment was infected with some very scary malware," the prince wrote.
"It was largely to do with the Court Circular, that annual record of 'official engagements' done by each members of the Royal Family in the preceding calendar year," he wrote. "Sinister document. At the end of the year, when all the numbers got tallied, comparisons would be made in the press.
"'Ah, this one's busier than that one.' 'Ah, this one's a lazy s***.'
"Certain family members had become obsessed, feverishly striving to have the highest number of official engagements recorded in the Circular each year, no matter what, and they'd succeeded largely by including things that weren't, strictly speaking, engagements, recording public interactions that were mere blips, the kinds of things Willy and I wouldn't dream of including. Which was essentially why the Court Circular was a joke.
"It was all self-reported, all subjective. Nine private visits with veterans, helping with their mental health? Zero points. Flying via helicopter to cut a ribbon at a horse farm? Winner!"
King Charles III and Princess Anne generally top the list of royals with the most engagements as calculated by the Court Circular.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
