Large Corporations Cut Outside Directors' Salaries... Samsung Electronics Tops with 180 Million KRW

Samsung Electronics Outside Director Average Salary Reaches 183.33 Million KRW
29 Companies Surpass 100 Million KRW, Most Belong to Four Major Groups

Due to the sluggish economic performance, a significant number of large corporations have reduced the annual salaries of their outside directors. Among the top 10 companies by salary, 7 have made cuts. Samsung Electronics still ranked first, but compared to 2023, when it exceeded 200 million KRW for the first time, the salary decreased by about 10%, falling back to the 100 million KRW range.

According to CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, on the 12th, an investigation into the average salaries of outside directors at 247 companies among the top 500 publicly traded companies by market capitalization in Korea, which announced shareholder meeting notices by the 7th, revealed this trend. The average salary of outside directors at Samsung Electronics was 183.33 million KRW, the highest. This is 9.8% less than in 2023 (203.16 million KRW). The average salary was calculated by dividing the total compensation by the average annual number of directors.

SK Telecom, which held second place for two consecutive years, saw its average salary decrease by 7.0% to 156.77 million KRW compared to the previous year. SK Hynix (153.67 million KRW), SK Inc. (152.00 million KRW), SK Square (146.00 million KRW), SK IE Technology (121.75 million KRW), and Samsung C&T (114.00 million KRW) also experienced reductions in average salaries. On the other hand, POSCO Holdings (131.21 million KRW), Hyundai Motor Company (120.14 million KRW), and SK Bioscience (112.98 million KRW) saw increases in their average salaries.

Among the surveyed companies, 29 exceeded an average outside director salary of 100 million KRW last year, an increase of 9 companies from the previous year (20 companies). Of these 29 companies in the '100 Million Club,' 26 were affiliates of the four major groups: Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG. Samsung included 13 companies such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Securities, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung SDI, and Samsung Life Insurance. SK Group had 9 companies in the '100 Million Club,' including SK Telecom, SK Hynix, SK Inc., and SK Square. Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Mobis) and LG Group (LG Electronics, LG Corp.) each had 2 companies included. Among mid-sized companies, semiconductor equipment maker TES was the only one to exceed an average salary of 100 million KRW.

Compared to 2023, the company with the largest decrease in average outside director salary was SK Innovation, with an average of 107.11 million KRW last year, a 36.2% drop. Following were SKC (down 34.75 million KRW), Samsung C&T (down 32.20 million KRW), Kolon TissueGene (down 25.00 million KRW), Samsung Electronics (down 19.83 million KRW), and Krafton (down 18.94 million KRW).

The industry with the highest average salary per outside director last year was the automobile and parts sector (86.59 million KRW). It was followed by holding companies (81.70 million KRW), finance (77.24 million KRW), shipbuilding, machinery, and equipment (76.57 million KRW), and distribution (75.43 million KRW).

Public enterprises had the lowest average outside director salary at 27.20 million KRW.

Among the 247 companies surveyed, 130 increased their average outside director salaries last year, while 68 decreased them. Twenty-nine companies raised their average salaries by more than 10 million KRW, and 15 companies reduced them by more than 10 million KRW.