▶ Full Post Text
Samsung Electronics will distribute about 40 trillion won ($26.6 billion) in bonuses to chip division employees this year after striking a tentative agreement with its labor union, according to Bloomberg. Using the proposed terms and analyst projections for 2026 operating profit, Bloomberg calculated the average payout at 513 million won, the equivalent of about $340,000. The total average compensation across Samsung was 158 million won in 2025, per a company filing.
The agreement, subject to a union ratification vote running May 22 through May 27, calls for Samsung to direct 10.5% of operating profit into stock bonuses along with a separate 1.5% cash component, according to Bloomberg. The program runs for 10 years, contingent on the company meeting profit thresholds. One-third of the stock award can be liquidated right away, with the rest parceled out in installments across the next two years, Bloomberg reported. The first payout is expected in early 2027.
Not all workers will fare equally. As an illustration, Reuters cited a union source estimating that someone in the memory chip unit earning an 80-million-won base salary could take home roughly 626 million won in total bonuses this year. By comparison, workers at SK Hynix stand to collect upward of 700 million won should their employer post annual profit of 250 trillion won, Reuters calculated. Unlike at Samsung, SK Hynix employees are not limited to stock payouts and may instead opt for cash, Reuters reported.
The deal ended a standoff that drew intervention from South Korea's president, prime minister, and labor minister. A strike that shut down chip production could have cost the economy as much as 1 trillion won daily, with losses potentially multiplying to 100 trillion won if in-progress semiconductor wafers were rendered unusable. Samsung's shipments account for nearly a quarter of all South Korean exports.
Workers had pushed for bonuses tied directly to operating results and the removal of a cap that had limited payouts to half of annual salary. The union's original demand was for a bonus pool equivalent to 15% of operating profit. The settled rate of 10.5% was enough, in JPMorgan's estimation, to push Samsung's total performance-linked compensation to about 12% of operating profit for the year, Reuters reported.
Samsung stock rose more than 6% on Thursday following the announcement, supported in part by strong results from Nvidia.
https://qz.com/samsung-chip-workers-bonus-ai-profits-052126