SK Hynix Chinese Employees Hit Hard: Bonuses Less Than 5% of Korean Staff

This article is from the WeChat public account: Tencent Technology, Author: Su Yang, Editor: Xu Qingyang

With its market cap continuously hitting new highs, SK Hynix's "year-end bonus forecast" adds a touch of drama to the booming memory industry.

Recently, reports indicated that driven by the surge in AI-driven memory demand, SK Hynix, a core memory supplier and Korean enterprise, could see its operating profit ceiling reach 250 trillion KRW in 2026. According to the 10% dividend rule, the maximum per capita year-end bonus could exceed 3 million RMB.

SK Hynix performance data

South Korean media cited matchmaking companies, saying that "blind dates with SK Hynix employees are now unconditionally Class A," and variety shows even joked that SK Hynix's vest uniforms are "worth their weight in gold."

Investment bank Macquarie Securities predicted that SK Hynix's operating profit will reach 447 trillion KRW in 2027. If the dividend rule remains unchanged, the per capita bonus in 2027 could be about 1.29 billion KRW, approaching 6.1 million RMB.

In a response to Yicai, SK Hynix confirmed the authenticity of the 10% operating profit dividend rule but emphasized that since the annual performance for 2026 and this year has not yet been determined, the bonus scale cannot be predicted, tactfully denying the accuracy of the 6.1 million RMB bonus package.

The high year-end bonus forecasts may not be entirely true, but there is a clear disparity in bonuses between Chinese and Korean employees.

"We have already lifted the bonus cap, but the bonuses in China just won't go up," said an SK Hynix China employee. "Korea settles once a year, while China settles twice a year."

The employee revealed that if they receive a 3 million bonus, Chinese employees get less than 5%, which amounts to about 150,000 RMB. "It's not that everyone's bonus is 150,000; it will be adjusted according to KPI ratings. The higher the rating, the higher the bonus."

In the memory industry's super cycle, expectations of high year-end bonuses have triggered media reports, claiming that the memory sector has surpassed doctors and lawyers to become the most favored profession by mothers-in-law in the Korean matchmaking market.

However, compared to the current boom, the memory downcycle paints a completely different picture.

In fiscal year 2023, the global semiconductor industry was in a "winter period." SK Hynix's total annual revenue fell by about 27% year-on-year to 32.77 trillion KRW, with a net loss of 9.14 trillion KRW. "The lowest point was during 2023 and 2024; there were no bonuses, it was zero," the aforementioned SK Hynix China employee revealed.

Regarding the hyped-up topic of "per capita 3 million+ or 6 million+ year-end bonuses," multiple industry practitioners have raised doubts, emphasizing that the per capita figure is not a reliable reference.

"The per capita amount is possible, but it definitely doesn't mean everyone gets 3 million. Executives take a large share, engineers get a few hundred thousand, and operators might just get 100,000," said a semiconductor practitioner. "Take TSMC engineers for example, the annual total can reach 1 million RMB."

"I just look at my own income, and then look at what's posted online; the numerical gap is too huge," the aforementioned SK Hynix China employee said when explaining the difference in year-end bonuses between Chinese and Korean staff. "Their (Korean employees) monthly salaries are higher, and bonuses are distributed based on the proportion of 12 months' salary per year."

Currently, SK Hynix has three main factories in mainland China, located in Wuxi, Dalian, and Chongqing. Wuxi primarily handles DRAM business, Dalian houses the NAND factory of Solidigm formed after acquiring Intel's assets, the Chongqing plant is a packaging and testing base, and sales companies in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai provide technical support.

According to recruitment information for the Dalian factory posted on Liepin, the monthly salary for relevant engineer positions generally ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 RMB, with a promised 13th-month pay, and the monthly salary for senior engineer positions can reach up to 35,000 RMB.

Beyond salary, SK Hynix also provides standard benefits like annual leave for Chinese employees; for instance, support roles like sales don't have to work overtime, but there are no stock-related incentives.

"Management all has it, but they are all Korean; Chinese people cannot be in management," the aforementioned SK Hynix China employee emphasized.

Multiple former employees of Korean companies stated that the companies basically do not provide stock incentives to Chinese employees. In the eyes of a former Samsung employee, the Chinese operations are more like a sales entity, similar to a national-level distributor.

"Now there are also mainland Chinese entering the middle management, and the same is true for TSMC," said Wu Zihao, a former TSMC factory construction expert and CEO of Ronghe Semiconductor Consulting. "Korean factories have many Korean staff, so it's normal to prioritize them. As they operate in the mainland longer, local management cadres will also rise; it's not so absolute."

Based on industry and corporate forecasts, memory will remain a hot topic for the next 2-3 years, and the "marriage jokes" and "uniform jokes" will continue to appear.

At the first-quarter earnings call, SK Hynix's CFO stated that over the next 3 years, demand represented by HBM is highly likely to continue exceeding supply, and related growth will continue to revolve around B2B demand. This signal is also reflected in SK Hynix's official press release.

SK Hynix stated: "Although the first quarter is typically a seasonally weak period, market demand remains strong, driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment. The company continued its upward performance momentum by expanding sales of high-value-added products such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), high-capacity server DRAM modules, and enterprise solid-state drives (eSSD)."

In short, all the above are typical B2B customer demands.

This means that if memory manufacturers like SK Hynix do not increase capacity support for consumer-grade products, the topic of memory price increases we've been discussing will continue to impact consumer products and drive a wave of price hikes. "Electronic gold" will continue to plague cyber gamers.

This article is from the WeChat public account: Tencent Technology, Author: Su Yang, Editor: Xu Qingyang