April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Employees at tech giant Samsung Electronics’ chip business unit will be awarded generous bonuses, up to 50 percent of their annual salaries, thanks to the strong chip business performance last year, according to news reports on Jan. 30.

The company on Jan. 29 notified its executives and employees that it will hand out the annual overall performance incentive aimed at rewarding those who made sizeable contributions to the company’s overall profit growth. The OPI is given to Samsung members within the 20 percent range of the excess profit every January.

Those belonging to the chip, smartphone, and display units will receive 50 percent of the salary thanks to the robust sales of DRAM chips, the Galaxy S8 smartphone, and AMOLED displays, which are used for premium handsets, last year.

Samsung’s chip business is estimated to account for around 60 percent of the company’s entire operating income last year.

The world’s largest chipmaker by revenue raked in 53.6 trillion won (US$50 billion) operating profit with its sales reaching 239 trillion won.

In addition to the target achievement incentive, which is given annually up to 100 percent of the monthly salary in December, the members of the chip division received 400 percent of the monthly salary as a special bonus in November.

It was the first time in the past four years that the company gave the special incentive for the Samsung execs and employees.

The employees working for the visual display and consumer electronics divisions will receive 35 percent and 28 percent of the salary, respectively, down from 50 percent and 40 percent last year. Although the two divisions achieved their own annual targets last year, they did not set record-high profits as the chip division did.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)