"Annual Pay of 150 Million Won" ... How Much Have Samsung Electronics Employees' Salaries Risen?

[Financial News] There is growing speculation that the average annual compensation for Samsung Electronics employees last year jumped by nearly 20% from a year earlier and may have exceeded 150 million won.
Korea CXO Institute on the 19th released a report titled "Analysis of Samsung Electronics' 2025 Average Employee Compensation, Labor Cost Changes, and Monthly National Pension Subscribers," based on the recently disclosed audit report.
The average salary was calculated for non-registered executives and regular employees at department-head level and below, excluding registered board members. The size of the workforce was analyzed using the number of National Pension subscribers.
According to the findings, the average annual salary per employee last year is estimated to have been in the range of 153 million to 158 million won.
The total amount of employee compensation at Samsung Electronics for 2025, as confirmed in the latest audit report, came to 19.7963 trillion won. This figure includes salaries and retirement benefits.
Korea CXO Institute noted that this item has generally been very similar to the total annual compensation for executives and employees later disclosed in the business report. On that basis, it projected that the total payroll to be announced soon will likely be between 19.4 trillion and 19.93 trillion won.
The institute added that it assumed Samsung Electronics had between 125,300 and 127,100 employees last year when deriving the average salary figure.
If last year's average annual pay is taken as 155 million won, that would represent an increase of 25 million won, or 19.2%, from the 2024 average of 130 million won. Korea CXO Institute explained that this would mark the highest level in Samsung Electronics' history.
On a separate (non-consolidated) basis, Samsung Electronics posted 238.043 trillion won in sales last year. Total labor costs, including salaries, retirement benefits, and 3.7912 trillion won in employee welfare expenses, reached 23.5875 trillion won.
As a result, labor costs accounted for 9.9% of sales, up 0.5 percentage points from 9.4% the previous year.
This is the second-highest level on record, following the 10.6% recorded in 2023.
As of the end of last year, Samsung Electronics had 124,996 National Pension subscribers, down 597, or 0.5%, from 125,593 a year earlier.
Korea CXO Institute pointed out that the number of National Pension subscribers does not perfectly match the actual headcount. However, compared with the roughly 5,000-person surge at the end of 2024 from a year before, the latest figure suggests that new hiring has relatively slowed.
Oh Ilseon, head of Korea CXO Institute, said, "As artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced rapidly, some tech companies around the world have shown an 'AI-era employment backlash' phenomenon, cutting jobs even when their earnings are strong." He added, "For major conglomerates including Samsung Electronics, business performance such as operating profit is highly likely to improve significantly this year, but the pace of job growth may be slower than expected due to AI adoption and efforts to enhance management efficiency."


hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter