TSMC dramatically announces a salary increase! "S+ Senior Engineers" can get a 9% raise, with an average of 3-5%, and an average bonus of 2.64 million yuan per person

TSMC’s 2026 salary adjustment plan has been announced, with an average increase of 3% to 5% for regular employees. Senior engineers (levels 33-34 and above) who receive an S+ rating or higher can see a maximum increase of 9%. In 2025, the total employee bonus payout was 206.1 billion yuan, with an estimated average bonus of a staggering 2.64 million yuan.
(Background: TSMC is recruiting 8,000 new employees! Master’s degree holders start at an annual salary of 2.2 million yuan, and business management and HR roles are also hiring.)
(Additional context: Korean vocational students working as operators at SK Hynix have received bonuses of up to 15 million yuan: they gave up higher education early and chose the right path, life is sweet.)

So jealous! TSMC’s annual salary adjustment plan has been officially revealed. According to the latest information, the company’s average raise ranges from 3% to 5%, slightly higher than the typical 2-3% increase seen in most Taiwanese tech companies. However, the details specify that the 7% to 9% range is reserved exclusively for top performers among senior engineers.

TSMC’s internal performance evaluations are divided into four levels: O (Outstanding, a small number of top performers), S (Fully meeting standards, the majority of employees fall into this category), I (Needs improvement), U (Below standards). Additionally, S+ is used as a distinction for the best among the S level.

This time, senior engineers (levels 33-34 and above) with S+ ratings or higher will receive a 7% to 9% raise; about 5% of employees with less seniority but an S rating can also get up to 7%.

Signal to retain talent

The logic behind this salary adjustment scheme is worth studying because senior engineers at level 33 and above are precisely the core technical force behind the 2-nanometer process and CoWoS advanced packaging. TSMC aims to target the most difficult-to-replicate employees with this precise increase.

In early April, Elon Musk’s Terafab was reported to be recruiting 2-nanometer and CoWoS engineers in Taiwan with triple the salary. The highest-level targets of TSMC’s recent salary adjustments happen to be experts in the same fields, indicating that there is still room for salary increases in these areas.

Average bonus of 2.64 million yuan, annual salary growth of 22.95%

In 2025, TSMC’s total employee bonuses amounted to 206.1 billion yuan. With approximately 78k employees, the average bonus per person is 2.64 million yuan. The average salary that year was 78k yuan, with an annual increase of 22.95%. Including benefits, the total reaches 4.09M yuan.

This is not because TSMC suddenly became generous, but a result of exploding AI computing power demand in 2025, where order premiums propagate upstream along the supply chain, making “raises unavoidable.”

TSMC previously announced that it plans to recruit about 8,000 new employees in 2026. Master’s degree engineers will have an average annual salary starting at 2.2 million yuan, and non-technical roles such as business management and HR are also on the list.

The recruitment scale of 8,000 people, combined with the 2-nanometer mass production schedule (TSMC’s Baoshan plant is expected to enter risk trial production by the end of 2025 and officially mass produce in 2026), CoWoS expansion plans, and the ongoing construction of the Arizona US Fab, all suggest that filling these positions will feel never-ending.

Those who are envious to the point of exhaustion can also buy stocks to share in the profits.