Samsung Electronics will pay a new special performance bonus to employees of its semiconductor division in late March or early April 2027, after the plan is put to a vote at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in March, according to an internal notice issued Wednesday.
The Device Solutions division, which oversees Samsung’s semiconductors business, informed employees Wednesday afternoon of the payout schedule, eligibility rules and payment terms. The bonus will be treated as income for the 2027 tax year.
Samsung Electronics and its labor union agreed in May to introduce the program for the DS division as part of their wage negotiations, conducted separately from the company’s existing overall performance incentive scheme.
The pool will be equivalent to 10.5 percent of the DS division’s 2026 operating profit, with no separate cap on payouts. Forty percent will be distributed across the DS division, while the remaining 60 percent will be allocated among business units according to performance.
Individual payouts will be calculated by multiplying an employee’s base amount by the applicable bonus rate.
That rate will be based on the organization within the DS division where the employee spent the longest period in 2026. Business unit-specific rates will be announced in February. The Compound Semiconductor Solutions business team will be excluded.
The Samsung Electronics Labor Union, the largest union at the tech giant with 52,935 members, has separately estimated potential payouts by business unit, using securities firms’ projection that the DS division will post about 370 trillion won ($276 billion) in operating profit this year.
For an employee earning an annual salary in the low 80 million won range, the union estimates that the combined pretax payout from the existing overall performance incentive scheme and the new bonus could reach about 750 million won in the memory business, 530 million won for employees in shared functions and 240 million won in the System LSI chip design and foundry businesses.
The estimates are the union’s own, and actual payouts may vary depending on the DS division’s final results for the year.
Payment will be made entirely in Samsung Electronics shares after taxes, insurance premiums and any voluntary donations are deducted.
Samsung will withhold 49.5 percent upfront, comprising a 45 percent income tax rate and local income tax equivalent to 10 percent of the income tax. The step is intended to reduce the likelihood of additional tax being due during the year-end tax settlement.
One-third of the shares can be sold immediately. The remaining two-thirds will be split evenly, with one portion locked up for one year and the other for two years.
Employees on the payroll as of Dec. 31, 2026, will generally qualify, as will certain employees on leave, including for childcare or pregnancy. Eligibility will take into account periods of employment and leave during the year.
Those excluded include employees who actually worked for one month or less in 2026, except those on qualifying leave; employees on nonqualifying leave or under suspension as of Dec. 31; probationary employees who joined on or after Thursday; and others whose contracts make them ineligible for the payout.
Samsung Electronics and its labor union are also working on a joint donation program tied to the bonus.
DS employees may voluntarily donate between 0.2 percent and 1 percent of their payout, with the company matching their contributions one-for-one. The two sides will continue discussions over where the money will go and how the program will be run.
“The union chair and executive members will take the lead by participating in the donation pledge, and we plan to encourage union members to join as well,” said union chief Choi Seung-ho. “We will continue discussions with management over where the donations will go and how the program will be run.”
yeeun@heraldcorp.com