Samsung Electronics, Average Annual Salary of Outside Directors Surpasses 200 Million Won for the First Time

CEO Score, 100 Largest Companies' Compensation Status Survey
Average 203.2 Million KRW per Person...Only One Exceeding 100 Million KRW in 5 Years Since 2018

Last year, the average annual salary per outside director at Samsung Electronics surpassed 200 million KRW for the first time.

Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 28th, the corporate data research institute 'CEO Score' investigated the compensation status of outside directors at 48 companies among the top 100 companies by market capitalization as of the end of last year, which had submitted shareholder meeting notices by 5 p.m. the previous day. The average compensation per outside director at Samsung Electronics was 203.2 million KRW, up 11.5% from 182.2 million KRW the previous year, making it the only company surveyed to exceed 200 million KRW.

Previously, Samsung Electronics recorded an average annual salary of 137 million KRW for outside directors in 2018, surpassing 100 million KRW for the first time. It has now risen to the 200 million KRW range in five years.

Samsung Electronics held its board of directors meetings eight times last year. Simply calculated by the number of board meetings attended, each outside director at Samsung Electronics received about 25.4 million KRW per meeting. Samsung Electronics plans to propose an agenda at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 20th of next month to reduce the total director compensation limit from 48 billion KRW last year to 43 billion KRW this year.

SK Telecom ranked second in average annual salary, paying 168.7 million KRW per outside director, a 1.5% increase from the previous year. SK Square ranked third with an average compensation of 159.5 million KRW, followed by Samsung C&T (146.2 million KRW) and Hyundai Motor Company (118.3 million KRW). Other companies included in the '100 million KRW club' for outside director salaries were POSCO Holdings (116.3 million KRW), SKC (114.8 million KRW), Naver (111.3 million KRW), LG (104.3 million KRW), LG Electronics (104.3 million KRW), and Hyundai Mobis (102.8 million KRW). On the other hand, LG Chem, which paid an average of 100 million KRW per outside director in 2022, decreased its payment by 2% to 98 million KRW last year, dropping out of the '100 million KRW club.'

Among the top 100 companies by market capitalization preparing disclosures, based on 2022 payments, companies expected to have outside director salaries exceeding 100 million KRW last year include SK Innovation, SK, SK Hynix, SK IE Technology, and LG Display. Thirteen companies, including LG Energy Solution, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Engineering, Hanwha Solutions, Hanwha Aerospace, Korean Air, Korea Zinc, and POSCO DX, reduced the average compensation per outside director compared to the previous year.

According to CEO Score, among the top 100 companies by market capitalization surveyed, three companies had outside director salaries below 50 million KRW: Coway (42 million KRW), Kakao Pay (37.5 million KRW), and Cosmo Advanced Materials (36 million KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.