Last Year, Samsung Electronics Tops Outside Director Compensation... 6 Members Each Received 180 Million KRW

Unicosearch Analyzes Top 300 Companies
Many Samsung and SK Affiliates Rank High
"Outside Directors' Individual Salaries Should Also Be Disclosed"

Samsung Electronics was found to have paid the highest compensation to outside directors among major companies in South Korea last year.

Global headhunting specialist Unicosearch announced on the 2nd that this was revealed after analyzing the compensation status of outside directors and full-time auditors at the top 300 domestic companies.

Samsung Electronics Seocho Building, Seocho-gu, Seoul Photo by Yonhap News

The number of outside directors with an average compensation of over 100 million KRW among the top 300 companies slightly increased from 64 people (6.2%) in 12 companies in December 2023 to 72 people (6.9%) in 15 companies last year.

Among them, Samsung Electronics paid a total of more than 1.1 billion KRW to 6 outside directors. The average salary per person was 183.33 million KRW. Following Samsung Electronics were SK Hynix (159.33 million KRW), SK Telecom (156.76 million KRW), POSCO Holdings (127 million KRW), Hyundai Motor (120 million KRW), Samsung C&T (114.2 million KRW), SK Gas (112.25 million KRW), Naver and SK Innovation (each 112 million KRW), and Hyundai Mobis (108.2 million KRW), all ranking within the top 10. Next were CJ Logistics (104.67 million KRW), Samsung Life Insurance (103.65 million KRW), Samsung Biologics (102.5 million KRW), LG Electronics (102 million KRW), and SK Networks (101 million KRW), which were also companies paying over 100 million KRW.

Among companies with an average compensation of over 100 million KRW, SK and Samsung affiliates accounted for a high proportion.

Looking at the entire top 300 companies, the total annual compensation for 1,045 outside directors increased by 3.6% from the previous year to 61.22199 billion KRW, with an average salary per person of 58.59 million KRW. Among them, the proportion of those receiving more than 50 million KRW increased by 1.1 percentage points from the previous year to 53.9%. Those in the 40 million KRW range accounted for 14.6%, 30 million KRW range 17.4%, 20 million KRW range 8.6%, and 10 million KRW range 5.4%.

The number of companies where full-time auditors’ compensation exceeded 100 million KRW increased by 7 from the previous year to 34 companies.

The company that paid the highest compensation was Industrial Bank of Korea (307 million KRW), followed by POSCO Steelion (273 million KRW), Indieff (273 million KRW), Dongbang (217 million KRW), Haitai Confectionery & Foods and Yulchon Chemical (210 million KRW each).

Jung Kyung-hee, Executive Director of Unicosearch, said, "Even among large companies, there is a large variance in outside directors’ salaries by company," adding, "If outside directors receive a certain level of compensation similar to inside directors, it is necessary to consider disclosing individual salaries to enhance governance transparency and shareholder trust."