Average Annual Salary of Outside Directors 67 Million KRW... 6.4 Million KRW per Board Meeting Attendance

Samsung Electronics Outside Directors' Average Annual Salary Reaches 182 Million KRW, Highest Recorded

The average annual salary of outside directors at major conglomerates was 67.53 million KRW, with approximately 6.4 million KRW paid per board meeting attendance.

On the 7th, Leaders Index, a corporate analysis research institute, announced that a survey of 124 companies among the top 500 companies by sales that disclosed notices of shareholder meetings ahead of the March general meetings found that the average compensation for 496 outside directors last year was 67.53 million KRW. This represents a 3.4% increase compared to the average compensation of 65.29 million KRW in 2021. The average number of board meetings held was 10.6 times, and outside directors received an average of 6.37 million KRW per board meeting attendance.

The company with the highest outside director salaries is Samsung Electronics. The average annual salary per outside director among the six directors at Samsung Electronics was 182 million KRW, a 23% increase from 148 million KRW in 2021.

There are 11 companies where outside directors earn more than 100 million KRW annually, an increase of four companies from seven in 2021. These include SK Telecom with 166.22 million KRW (including compensation paid in company shares), SK Hynix 158 million KRW, Samsung C&T 144 million KRW, SKC 120 million KRW, Naver 111 million KRW, Hyundai Motor Company 108 million KRW, POSCO Holdings 105 million KRW, LG Electronics 104 million KRW, Hyundai Mobis 103 million KRW, and LG Chem 100 million KRW.

Among the surveyed companies, the company with the largest increase in average outside director salary was Hyundai Doosan Infracore. The salary nearly doubled from 37 million KRW in 2021 to 66 million KRW last year. Other companies with high growth rates include Sajo Daerim (75.4%), Nongshim (64.7%), SKC (57.9%), and Krafton (57.8%).

Meanwhile, the company that held the most board meetings last year was DL Construction, where outside director Shin Jin-gi attended 29 board meetings over the year. Following were SGC E-Tech Construction with 25 meetings, EcoPro BM with 22, Shinsegae Construction with 21, and Korea Zinc with 20 meetings.