Samsung Electronics' Average Salary Last Year Decreased Compared to 2 Years Ago: "138 Million KRW"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] It has been revealed that the average salary of Samsung Electronics employees last year decreased compared to two years ago. This appears to be influenced by the operating profit, which fell by 16% year-on-year to around 40 trillion won. Samsung Electronics' average salary last year was around 138 million won.

On the 22nd, the corporate analysis firm CXO Research Institute released a report titled "2022 Analysis of Compensation for Samsung Electronics Registered Inside Directors and Employees" containing this information. The report was based on Samsung Electronics' audit report submitted on the 16th and proxy solicitation reference documents released on the 14th.

CXO Research Institute analyzed the total salary amount and the total number of employees. The analysis showed that the total salary amount for employees last year was 15.8365 trillion won. The number of employees was calculated as 114,750. The institute stated, "Comparing the total number of employees specified in Samsung Electronics' semi-annual and business reports over the past four years shows a difference of about 1%, approximately 1,000 people." They explained, "In the semi-annual report from June last year, Samsung Electronics disclosed that the number of employees required to calculate the average compensation was 113,604."

Calculating the average salary per employee last year using the total salary amount and number of employees resulted in approximately 133 million to 138 million won. The 138 million won figure is 4.6% less than 144.6 million won in 2021 but 8.7% more than 127 million won in 2020.

The Samsung Seocho Building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 31st of last month. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

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CXO Research Institute reported that inside directors received more than 4.36 billion won per person last year. According to the proxy solicitation reference documents, Samsung Electronics paid 22.5 billion won to 11 registered directors last year. Among the registered directors, five are inside directors.

CXO Research Institute estimated that Samsung Electronics paid around 700 million won to six outside directors, based on the average of about 1.5 billion won from business reports between 2019 and 2021. Subtracting 700 million won from 22.5 billion won leaves approximately 21.8 billion won likely paid as compensation to inside directors. Dividing this by five yields 4.36 billion won per person. The average compensation per inside director in 2021 was 7.747 billion won. If the estimate is accurate, inside director salaries decreased by about 43.7% (3.387 billion won) in one year. The total retirement pay for former executives Ko Dong-jin and Kim Hyun-seok, who left the company in 2021, exceeded 12 billion won. Excluding their retirement pay, the average inside director compensation in 2021 was 5.347 billion won. Compared to this figure, last year's inside director salary decreased by approximately 18.5% (987 million won).

The estimated average compensation gap between Samsung Electronics' inside directors and employees last year was about 32 times. This is higher than 27.8 times in 2019 but lower than 42.3 times in 2020 and 53.8 times in 2021.

The number of employees increased according to the investigation. The survey of Samsung Electronics' National Pension subscribers showed that last year there were 12,957 new employees and 6,189 resignations, resulting in a net increase of 6,768 employees. Oh Il-seon, director of CXO Research Institute, stated, "The average salary for Samsung Electronics employees this year may decrease somewhat depending on the management situation."

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