Samsung to pay up to 100% bonuses for semiconductor division employees

Samsung Electronics will provide 100 percent performance-based bonuses to the employees of the semiconductor division next week, industry sources said Friday.

The world’s biggest memory chip provider is planning to give its workers a half-year bonus, dubbed “target achievement incentives” based on their performances, which could be a maximum of 100 percent of their monthly salary.

While the employees of the chipmaking unit are reportedly said to receive bonuses that are equivalent to their monthly salaries, those at the smartphone and consumer electronics units are likely to receive 75 percent of their monthly salaries, largely due to slow sales of the set products in the second quarter in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Samsung posted operating profit of 6.4 trillion won ($5.3 billion) in the first quarter of the year, up 3.43 percent from a year earlier, while sales rose 5.61 percent on-year to 55.3 trillion over the period.

In the second quarter, Samsung is expected to have raised 53.39 trillion won in sales, down 5.5 percent from a year earlier, while the operating profit is estimated to drop 2.3 percent on-year to 6.44 trillion won over the period.

The semiconductor business has helped the company to stay afloat on the back of robust demand of server chips sparked by the pandemic-driven stay-at-home economy, according to market watchers.

Samsung is scheduled to announce its second-quarter earnings guidance next week.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldccorp.com)