Average Salary at SK hynix Soars to 185 Million Won, Jumping 70 Million Won in a Year

[Financial News] SK hynix Inc. has set a new record, with the average annual salary per employee reaching 185 million won.
According to the 2025 business report disclosed by SK hynix Inc. on the 17th, the average salary per employee last year came to 185 million won. This represents a 58.1% increase from the previous year’s 117 million won, marking the highest level since the company was founded and surpassing the average salary at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., which stood at 158 million won.
The sharp rise in pay appears to stem from a surge in earnings driven by growth in the AI memory market, centered on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). SK hynix Inc. posted sales of 97.1467 trillion won last year, achieving its best performance on record.
Executive compensation also increased significantly. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, received a total of 4.75 billion won from SK hynix Inc., including 3.5 billion won in base salary and 1.25 billion won in bonuses. Chief Executive Officer Noh-Jung Kwak was paid a total of 4.239 billion won, consisting of 1.54 billion won in salary and 2.695 billion won in bonuses. President of AI Infrastructure Kim Ju-seon received 2.83 billion won, while Ahn Hyun, President in charge of Development, was paid 2.052 billion won.
As SK hynix Inc. pursued talent acquisition through large-scale open recruitment alongside rolling hiring, the total number of employees reached around 34,500 last year, up about 6.7% from a year earlier. Investment in Research and Development (R&D) also hit a record high of 6.7325 trillion won, a 35.9% increase year-on-year. However, because sales grew even more, R&D as a share of revenue edged down slightly to 6.9%.
The shareholder base expanded as well. The number of small individual shareholders increased by more than 400,000 in a year, surpassing 1.18 million and breaking through the “one million shareholders” mark. Backed by strengthened competitiveness in AI semiconductors, the share price has continued its upward trend and at one point during trading this year touched 1 million won.
Meanwhile, SK hynix Inc. has set the dividend for the 2025 fiscal year at 3,000 won per share, planning to return a total of 2.1 trillion won to shareholders. The company also intends to cancel all 15.3 million treasury shares it holds in order to enhance per-share value.
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter