Samsung Electronics just bought itself labor peace, and the price tag is staggering. The company reached a tentative agreement with its largest labor union on May 20-21, averting a planned strike by roughly 48,000 workers in its semiconductor division.
The deal introduces a multi-year performance bonus system directly tied to profits from Samsung’s AI-driven chip business. Total bonuses for 2026 are projected at approximately 40 trillion won, or about $26.6 billion. That works out to an average individual payout of around 513 million won, roughly $340,000 per worker.
How the deal works
The new structure allocates 10.5% of the semiconductor division’s operating profits to workers over the next decade, with an additional 1.5% cash component. Bonuses will primarily be distributed in shares rather than cash, which neatly aligns worker incentives with Samsung’s stock performance.
One notable change: bonuses are no longer capped at 50% of an employee’s annual pay. Given Samsung’s current trajectory in AI chip demand, that cap was apparently becoming a ceiling nobody wanted to keep bumping into.
