Samsung’s highest-paid executive received W11.8b in 2021

Samsung Electronics’ former mobile business chief Koh Dong-jin was the highest-paid executive at the Korean tech giant last year, according to the firm’s regulatory filing Tuesday.

Koh, who has stepped away from daily operations to assume an advisory role, took home an annual pay of 11.8 billion won ($9.5 million) last year, including bonuses worth 4.04 billion won and a retirement pay of 6.43 billion won.

In a year-end reshuffle in December, Koh stepped down from the post along with other two co-CEOs -- Kim Ki-nam and Kim Hyun-seok who oversaw the semiconductor and home appliance businesses, respectively.

Kim Hyun-seok was the second highest-paid executive with 10.3 billion won in total compensation, while Kim Ki-nam, who now leads research work for futuristic technologies, received 8.64 billion won.

Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung Group, has not taken a salary since 2017. Still, he received a combined 343.4 billion won as dividends from five Samsung affiliates.

Of the two incumbent CEOs, Han Jong-hee, vice chairman and head of the device experience division, received 4.5 billion won last year, while Kyung Kye-hyun, the chief business chief and the former CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, received 2.04 billion won from the parts-making affiliate.

The filing also showed that a total of 113,485 people were working at Samsung in Korea alone as of last year, up 3,995 from a year ago. Their average pay was 144 million won, a 13.4 percent jump from 127 million won on-year.

Samsung invested 48 trillion won in infrastructure, up 25 percent from a year ago, while its research and investment spending also increased 6.5 percent to 21.2 trillion won last year.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)