Korea – Year-end bonuses at chip, shipbuilding firms to soar while battery companies scale back
Korea’s year-end corporate bonuses in 2025 are diverging sharply, with firms in semiconductors, power equipment and shipbuilding preparing record payouts while companies in petrochemicals and batteries scale back amid prolonged downturns.
Samsung Electronics announced in an internal notice that employees in its semiconductor division can expect to receive bonuses worth up to nearly half of their annual salaries in 2025 under the company’s excess profit incentive system, according to business officials on Wednesday.
The Device Solutions division, which oversees the company’s semiconductor operations, is expected to receive bonuses equivalent to 43 to 48 percent of individual annual salaries, approaching the highest level since the so-called overall performance incentive system was introduced.
Under the scheme, Samsung pays up to 50 percent of an employee’s annual salary when a division meets performance targets, using up to 20 percent of excess profits.
The Mobile Experience division, which includes smartphones, is expected to receive 45 to 50 percent. In contrast, payout rates for the Visual Display, Digital Appliances and Network divisions were set at 9 to 12 percent.
Higher bonuses in the semiconductor unit reflect a rebound in commodity dynamic random access memory prices and rising sales of high bandwidth memory. Samsung will also pay a target achievement incentive for the second half of last year equivalent to up to 100 percent of monthly base pay.
SK hynix is also expected to deliver sharply higher bonuses. Labor and management agreed in September of last year to allocate 10 percent of operating profit to performance-sharing bonuses and to scrap the previous cap of 1,000 percent of base pay. Industry sources expect bonuses paid early next year to average more than 100 million won ($70,000) per employee.
Companies supplying power equipment, which have benefited from the AI investment cycle, are also reporting record payouts.
HD Hyundai Electric said it will pay bonuses equivalent to 1,195 percent of base pay for 2025, exceeding last year’s 1,077 percent and marking a record high. The increase reflects strong demand for products such as ultra-high-voltage transformers, driven by the expansion of AI data centers and replacement demand for aging power grids in North America and Europe.
The company typically calculates bonuses at roughly 60 to 70 times its operating margin. With its 2025 operating margin expected to exceed 20 percent, employees will receive bonuses above 1,000 percent for a second consecutive year.
The shipbuilding sector has also seen improved compensation. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which launched as an integrated entity on Dec. 1 of last year, will pay nonsalaried employees bonuses exceeding 600 percent of base pay ahead of Korea’s “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” investment initiative in the U.S. shipbuilding sector.
Employees formerly with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will receive 638 percent of standard wages, while those from HD Hyundai Mipo will receive 559 percent. Production workers will receive bonuses based on organizational and individual performance, with some payments to be settled later.
By contrast, petrochemical and battery makers continue to face weak market conditions, weighing heavily on year-end compensation.
Petrochemical companies are grappling with oversupply from China and slowing global demand, prompting discussions on work force redeployment and restructuring alongside bonus reductions. Some battery makers are also prioritizing cost controls over compensation as slowing EV demand pressures earnings.
Lee Jong-woo, a professor of business administration at Ajou University, said:
Industries such as AI semiconductors, power infrastructure and shipbuilding are directly tied to global policy and demand, allowing earnings momentum to continue,
“Sectors facing oversupply remain in an adjustment phase, and these gaps between industries are becoming increasingly visible through bonus payments.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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Korea – Year-end bonuses at chip, shipbuilding firms to soar while battery companies scale back, source