With the semiconductor market continuing to improve, a forecast has emerged that next year's performance bonus for SK hynix employees could reach up to 1.3 billion won per person.
On the 12th, global investment bank Macquarie Securities projected that SK hynix's operating profit in 2027 will reach 447 trillion won. Based on this estimate, if 10% of operating profit is set aside as the profit sharing (PS) pool, the total PS size would amount to about 44.7 trillion won.
A simple calculation using SK hynix's headcount at the end of last year (about 34,500 people) suggests the company could afford to pay about 1.29 billion won in bonuses per person.
Last September, SK hynix reached a labor-management agreement to use 10% of operating profit as the PS pool and abolished the existing cap of "1,000% of base salary."
This year as well, with operating profit expected to approach 200 trillion won on the back of an improved semiconductor market, some analyses say the PS to be paid early next year could average about 580 million won per person.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is also said to be considering expanding performance bonuses. In recent labor talks, it reportedly proposed using more than 10% of operating profit as the bonus pool. Applying Macquarie Securities' estimate of next year's operating profit of 477 trillion won for Samsung Electronics, the PS pool would be about 50 trillion won, and based on the domestic headcount, the company is analyzed to have room to pay an average of about 390 million won per person.