[Edaily Reporter SOYEON KIM ] With SK hynix management and labor having reached a tentative agreement to pay performance bonuses 60% in stock and 40% in cash, attention is focused on how union members will vote. The union held briefing sessions for each shift over the weekend to persuade members and will conduct a vote on the proposal on the 24th and 25th. As the size of performance bonuses has increased due to record-breaking earnings driven by artificial intelligence (AI), discussions regarding performance compensation methods are expected to remain a major topic next year, following this year.

According to industry sources on the 23rd, the SK hynix production workers’ union will hold a vote on the tentative agreement for the 2026 wage and collective bargaining agreement among all union members from the 24th to the 25th. The office workers’ union also plans to conclude its vote early this week.

If a majority of eligible union members vote and a majority of those who vote approve the agreement, the tentative agreement reached by labor and management will be ratified. If the tentative agreement from even one union is rejected, that union will enter into renegotiations with management. The unions are holding briefing sessions for each shift through the weekend, focusing on securing members’ votes in favor of the agreement. Previously, the unions had to renegotiate with management after the tentative agreements for the 2023 and 2024 wage and collective bargaining agreements were rejected in consecutive votes.

The key provision of this tentative agreement between SK hynix management and the union is that 40% of the performance-based bonus—the Profit Sharing (PS)—will be paid in cash, while the remaining 60% will be paid in company stock. Of the stock portion, 40% can be sold in the same year, and the remaining 20% will be distributed over two years at a rate of 10% per year.

Specifically for the 2026 PS, which will be distributed early next year, employees have the option to receive the 40% of shares that are tradable in the same year as cash. Accordingly, next year, employees can choose to receive up to 80% of their PS in cash. SK hynix explained, “We have refined the plan to align the interests of stakeholders more evenly, reflecting the principle that employees grow alongside shareholders.”

Assuming SK hynix’s annual operating profit this year reaches 250 trillion won, the PS fund is estimated at around 25 trillion won. Based on this, the PS is expected to average around 700 million won per person, of which approximately 420 million won will be received in the form of company stock.

The wage increase rate was set at 6.3%, which is 0.1 percentage points higher than that of its competitor, SamsungElectronics.

Opinions within the company are divided regarding this tentative agreement. It is reported that there is considerable dissatisfaction stemming from the fact that the existing performance-based bonus system—a 10-year framework established last year—has been revised after only one year.

Last year, SK hynix management and labor agreed to abolish the cap on performance-based bonuses (PS), which were funded by 10% of operating profit, and to maintain this system for 10 years. Under that agreement, 80% of the PS was to be paid in cash in the current year, while the remaining 20% was to be deferred and paid in cash over two years at a rate of 10% annually.

Although it did not participate in this year’s wage and collective bargaining negotiations, the SK hynix Unified Labor Union—which is dissatisfied with this agreement—is expected to devise a response. The number of members in the Unified Labor Union has surpassed 3,400.

The industry views this positively, noting that labor and management reached a compromise without external mediation and without the situation escalating to extremes such as a strike. This indicates that labor and management have found a certain balance regarding the method of performance bonus payment. The strengthening of welfare benefits—including an increase in in-house welfare points and the establishment and expansion of systems for congratulatory and condolence payments—is also contributing to the positive reaction among employees.

However, since this tentative agreement is limited to this year, the embers of the controversy surrounding performance bonuses have not been completely extinguished. There are also concerns that if the proportion of stock-based compensation increases in the future, the actual amount of compensation could fluctuate depending on stock price movements.

Ultimately, analysts say the prolonged debate over performance-based bonuses in the semiconductor industry stems from a difference in perception between labor and management regarding who should receive the profits—and how they should be distributed—amidst annual earnings reaching hundreds of trillions of won due to the explosive growth in demand for AI memory. It remains to be seen whether this year’s compromise will mark the end of the performance-based bonus conflict or serve as the starting point for another debate next year.