[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] For the first time, the parental leave rates at SamsungElectronics and SK hynix both declined in the first half of this year. As both companies are set to pay performance bonuses averaging hundreds of millions of won per employee early next year, an increasing number of employees are either canceling their leave plans or choosing to return to work early.

According to the semi-annual and business reports released by SamsungElectronics and SK hynix on the 27th, SamsungElectronics’ parental leave utilization rate for the first half of this year stood at 35.5% among employees who had a child born during the period, down 0.7 percentage points from the same period last year (36.2%). Among Namsung, the rate fell by 1.2 percentage points from 12.4% to 11.2%, while among women, it dropped by 6.1 percentage points from 94.3% to 88.2%.

SK hynix showed a similar trend. In the first half of this year, the parental leave rate among employees with children in elementary school or younger was 3.2%, down 0.8 percentage points from 4.0% in the first half of last year. The rate for Namsung fell from 1.3% to 0.7%, while that for women dropped from 10.1% to 8.9%. SK hynix’s relatively low parental leave rate is due to the fact that only employees with children in elementary school or younger are eligible for parental leave.

This is the first time the parental leave rates at both companies have fallen simultaneously since the disclosure of parental leave rates became mandatory when listed companies submitted their annual reports last year. SamsungElectronics and INICS Corporation submitted their 2024 annual reports last year and retroactively disclosed figures dating back to 2022.

SamsungElectronics’ parental leave rate continued to rise, from 34.5% in 2022 to 37.4% in 2023 and 39.5% in 2024. However, after dropping to 38.1% last year, the rate continued its downward trend in the first half of this year. SK hynix’s rate rose from 7.8% in 2022 to 8.2% in 2023 before falling to 6.6% in 2024. It rebounded slightly to 6.9% last year.

Industry observers attribute this trend to recent changes in the scale of performance-based bonuses. As the artificial intelligence (AI) memory market has shown unprecedented strength, the size of performance bonuses at both companies has expanded significantly.

SamsungElectronics has agreed with labor representatives this year to pay a special management performance bonus to its Semiconductor (DS) division, funded by 10.5% of operating profit. In particular, the bonus for the Memory Business Division is expected to exceed 600 million won. SK hynix’s performance bonuses are also expected to be at least several hundred million won per employee. Given the sheer size of these bonuses, it appears that more employees are choosing to continue working without taking leave, even if it means arranging childcare elsewhere.

An industry insider explained, “There has been an increase in employees who take parental leave but return early or postpone their planned leave,” adding, “I’ve even seen cases where employees who are expected to receive performance bonuses rush back to work just in case.” Another industry insider also noted, “Many employees calculate in advance which plan will yield the highest performance bonus and plan their leave accordingly.”