SK Hynix employee bonuses exposed! Each person gets a whopping 30 million TWD? In contrast, Samsung sparks a wave of work stoppages

The AI wave is rewriting the pay and profit-allocation culture across South Korea’s semiconductor industry. This year, SK Hynix employees’ average performance bonus is expected to reach up to 700 million won ( about $477,000). Next year, it is even more likely to break through the 1 billion-won mark; meanwhile, the Samsung Electronics labor union, dissatisfied with management’s bonus plan, has vowed to launch a two-week strike starting May 21.

SK Hynix pays bonuses based on “10% of operating profit,” with 30,000 employees enjoying 25 trillion won

According to a report by the Korea JoongAng Daily, in September last year SK Hynix announced it would scrap the long-standing bonus cap system and switch to a new policy of “allocating 10% of annual operating profit to employees.” Based on market analysts’ forecast of the company’s 2026 operating profit of about 250 trillion won ( about $169 billion), total employee bonuses are expected to come to 25 trillion won, shared equally among roughly 35,000 employees, with each employee receiving as much as 700 million won (47.7 thousand dollars).

Earlier this February, the company already distributed profit-sharing bonus payments averaging about 140 million won per person ( about $95,000), seen as a prelude to a bumper year.

Looking further ahead, the bonus figures may continue to set new records. Investment bank Macquarie predicts that SK Hynix’s operating profit in 2027 will reach 447 trillion won ( about $3,045 billion). Under the current 10% profit-sharing system, average employee bonuses at that time would theoretically exceed 1.2 billion won ( about $820,000).

Samsung labor-management talks collapse—will hundreds of people jump ship to neighboring Hynix?

On the other hand, the internal atmosphere at Samsung Electronics is unusually bleak. The Samsung union is asking management to allocate 15% of operating profit to employees. If calculated using this year’s market forecast operating profit of 298 trillion won ( about $2,020 billion), even just the Semiconductor division would have to pay about 580 million won ( about $396,000) per employee to its 77,000 employees. Management cited SK Hynix’s 10% standard as an alternative, but the proposal was rejected, leaving the negotiations deadlocked.

Subsequently, the union announced plans to hold a large-scale rally on April 23 at the Pyeongtaek plant area, and vowed to launch a full-scale strike starting May 21. Last Thursday, Samsung Electronics applied to the court for an injunction to block “illegal activities” related to the strike period.

Union chairperson Choi Seung-ho also revealed that, over the past four months, about 200 employees have already moved to SK Hynix, showing that the pay gap is turning into pressure that drives talent out.

( Samsung Electronics union votes 93% in favor of striking; an 18-day shutdown in May could severely hit global chip supply)

HBM drives an earnings turnaround—AI memory reshapes the industry

Looking at 2023, the memory market fell into a serious downturn. Samsung’s chip division recorded a full-year loss, and in 2024 it did not pay any performance bonuses; SK Hynix’s bonuses also shrank dramatically. Now, HBM ( high-bandwidth memory), as a core component of AI servers and GPUs, is seeing continuously surging demand, pushing the two companies’ profits to both hit historical highs.

( Samsung and SK Hynix drop short-term contracts and sign three- to five-year long-term deals—are they rushing to lock in prices because they fear there won’t be enough follow-on capacity?)

SK Hynix’s operating profit for all of 2025 reached 47.2 trillion won, surpassing Samsung’s 43.6 trillion won for the first time. The key to this achievement lies in its long-term technical lead it has accumulated in the HBM market.

Government tax breaks trigger fairness controversy, sparking backlash across South Korea

However, as the huge bonus figures spread widely, public opinion also began to show some noise. Multiple posts appeared on the South Korean anonymous forum Blind, questioning whether companies that receive large amounts of state subsidies have a responsibility to give profits back to society. Estimates indicate that under the K-Chips Act’s 20% tax credit policy, SK Hynix and Samsung together received tax benefits totaling up to 20 trillion won ( about $136 billion) over the past two years.

As SK Hynix’s high-bonus system gradually triggers comparisons across the industry, Samsung’s labor union and the Hyundai Motor union have both followed suit, increasing pressure on management. With the AI revolution continuing to deepen and semiconductor talent demand continuing to rise rather than slow down, this pay battle in South Korea’s tech sector likely hasn’t entered its most intense phase yet.

This article: SK Hynix employees’ bonuses exposed! Each person gets 30 million TWD? On the other hand, Samsung’s strike wave breaks out—first reported by Chain News ABMedia.