12 Companies with Outside Directors Earning Over 100 Million KRW Annually... Samsung Electronics Opens the '200 Million KRW Era'

CXO Research Institute Analyzes Compensation of Outside Directors and Full-time Auditors in Top 300 Companies Last Year
Average Compensation Increasing from 48.8 Million to 54.1 Million to 57.37 Million Won
By Company, Samsung Electronics - SK Telecom - SK Innovation in Order

Last year, there were 12 companies with an average outside director compensation exceeding 100 million KRW. The company with the highest average compensation per person was Samsung Electronics (203 million KRW). It marked the first time the outside director annual salary entered the '200 million KRW era.'

The Korea CXO Institute, a corporate analysis specialist organization, announced the results of the "Analysis of Outside Director and Full-time Auditor Compensation Status of the Top 300 Domestic Companies Last Year" on the 28th.

The survey found that there were 1,030 outside directors in the top 300 domestic companies last year. This number increased compared to 2019 (987) and 2021 (981). As of last year, 675 outside directors also served as audit committee members, accounting for 65.5% of the total. This was higher than in 2019 (61.1%) and 2021 (65.2%).

On January 9th, Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The total annual compensation for outside directors in the top 300 companies last year was approximately 59.094 billion KRW. The average compensation per person was about 57.37 million KRW. This represents a 17.6% increase from 2019 (48.8 million KRW) and a 6% increase from 2021 (54.1 million KRW).

The average compensation per outside director who also served as an audit committee member was 60.59 million KRW, which was 9.33 million KRW higher than the 51.26 million KRW average for non-audit committee outside directors. In 2021, the average was 56.33 million KRW for audit committee members and 50.94 million KRW for non-audit committee outside directors.

Among outside directors, 6.4% received compensation exceeding 100 million KRW. There were 12 companies (64 individuals) where the average outside director compensation exceeded 100 million KRW. This was an increase from 2019 (3 companies, 16 individuals) and 2021 (10 companies, 55 individuals). Notably, among the 12 companies that joined the '100 million KRW club' for outside director salaries last year, six were SK Group affiliates.

By company, Samsung Electronics had the highest outside director compensation. The average compensation per outside director at Samsung Electronics was 203 million KRW. Last year marked the first time that the average annual salary of outside directors at a large corporation exceeded 200 million KRW, thanks to Samsung Electronics.

Other companies joining the '100 million KRW club' included SK Telecom (163.6 million KRW), SK Innovation (161.2 million KRW), SK Hynix (155.1 million KRW), Samsung C&T Corporation (146.2 million KRW), POSCO Holdings (116.3 million KRW), Hyundai Motor Company (114.6 million KRW), Naver (111.3 million KRW), SK Gas (105.8 million KRW), LG Electronics (104.3 million KRW), SK Networks (103.6 million KRW), and SKC (103 million KRW).

By industry, the average compensation was highest in Electronics (81.97 million KRW), followed by Distribution Trading (79.05 million KRW), Petrochemicals (73.7 million KRW), Information and Communications (69.9 million KRW), Finance (69.48 million KRW), Steel (61.04 million KRW), and Automobiles (55.49 million KRW). The Fashion industry had the lowest average outside director compensation last year at 29.52 million KRW.

Oh Il-seon, director of the CXO Institute, said, "The larger the company's sales, the more actively they recruit famous figures as outside directors, which leads to higher compensation payments. As outside directors' compensation increases, it is necessary to deeply examine whether they are properly exercising oversight and monitoring functions on the board."