Bonus gap highlighted! Dissatisfied semiconductor employees reportedly receive $26.6 billion, Samsung's smallest union wants to stop salary agreement vote.

The union representing non-semiconductor employees of Samsung Electronics has applied for an injunction in a South Korean court to stop the voting process for a temporary pay agreement. According to the agreement, Samsung will distribute approximately 40 trillion Korean won (approximately 26.6 billion US dollars) in bonuses to the highly profitable semiconductor employees. This union is the smallest of the three major unions at Samsung, with members mainly from the Digital Experience (DX) department. The union stated on Tuesday that it has filed for an injunction to halt the voting on the agreement. The union leader said that the largest Samsung union, which led the wage negotiations last week and ultimately avoided a strike, showed bias towards semiconductor employees during the negotiations, harming the interests of employees in other business lines. Currently, union members are voting on this temporary agreement. According to the agreement, Samsung will distribute bonuses for this year to a total of 78,000 employees in the semiconductor department. Media reports indicate that the bonus amounts for semiconductor employees vary based on proposed terms and projected operating profits for 2026, with an average of 513 million Korean won (approximately 340,000 US dollars) per person. In contrast, DX department employees are only receiving an average bonus of 6 million Korean won. According to documents submitted by Samsung in March, the average salary for all employees in 2025 was 158 million Korean won. A union official revealed that the voting on the temporary pay agreement will conclude on Wednesday, and as of Monday evening, 87% of eligible voting employees had already cast their votes. It is currently uncertain whether the legal action taken by the union representing DX employees will affect the approval process of the agreement. The temporary agreement only requires a simple majority vote to be officially approved. Industry analysts generally believe that the agreement will be approved smoothly in the end. This agreement went through months of tense negotiations, during which the threat of a strike was high, but it was finalized last week. The reason why this labor dispute has stirred global market nerves is because of Samsung's decisive influence on the South Korean economy and stock market: Samsung Electronics accounts for about 26.5% - 28.5% of the weighted average share price index (KOSPI) in South Korea, and combined with SK Hynix, the two major chip giants' weights account for nearly 50%, serving as a "ballast" for the Korean stock market. Due to this influence, the strike threat once caused a severe market turmoil: on May 15th, Samsung's stock price dropped by over 10%, leading to a 7.6% decrease in the KOSPI index. The Bank of Korea estimated that if the strike lasts for 18 days, it will result in an economic loss of 30 trillion Korean won and decrease the annual GDP growth rate by 0.5 percentage points. However, on May 21st, as the temporary agreement was reached and the strike risk was lifted, Samsung's stock price surged by 8.51% in a single day, and KOSPI rose by 8.42%, quickly restoring market sentiment. This turmoil also highlights the internal contradictions within this electronic giant: the wage gap between different departments is widening. The chip business is set to be the main driver for Samsung's profit in 2026. Samsung is expected to become one of the most profitable companies globally by the end of the year, and employees are demanding a share of the company's earnings. This South Korean giant is the world's largest memory chip supplier, with its products widely used in smartphones, electric vehicles, and data center servers supporting artificial intelligence services like ChatGPT and Claude. Samsung's DX department is responsible for terminal products such as smartphones, home appliances, and TVs. Previously, this small union at Samsung had jointly formed a collective bargaining committee with the other two major unions to negotiate with the company's management. However, the union withdrew later on, citing that the interests of DX department employees were not adequately represented. After the split, Samsung's largest union announced that members of this small union no longer had voting rights. Since the announcement of the temporary pay agreement, the membership of this small union has substantially increased: before the agreement was announced, it had about 3,000 members, and as of Tuesday morning, the number has reached close to 13,000. However, internal turmoil at Samsung has not disturbed market sentiment. Driven by prospects for peace in the Middle East, Samsung Electronics rose by 2.56% on Tuesday, and SK Hynix rose by 6.44%, leading the South Korean KOSPI index to close up by 2.55% at 8047.51 points, reaching a new closing high.