[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] The parental leave rates at SamsungElectronics and SK hynix both declined in the first half of this year for the first time. As both companies plan to pay performance bonuses in the 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 interim 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 that 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 men fell from 1.3% to 0.7%, while that for women dropped from 10.1% to 8.9%.

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

SamsungElectronics’ parental leave rate had been rising steadily, from 34.5% in 2022 to 37.4% in 2023 and 39.5% in 2024. However, after dropping to 38.1% last year, the downward trend continued into 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. Last year, it rebounded slightly to 6.9%.

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.

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