Korea CXO Institute Surveys Expected 2025 Employee Salaries
Samsung Electronics National Pension Subscribers Down by Around 600 in One Year
There is a projection that the average annual compensation (salary) per employee at Samsung Electronics last year will exceed 150 million won.
Korea CXO Institute, a corporate analysis specialist, announced on the 19th the "2025 Analysis of Samsung Electronics Employees' Average Compensation and Labor Cost Changes, and Monthly Status of National Pension Subscribers," stating this outlook. Based on the recently submitted audit report, the institute calculated the expected average salary per employee and other figures. The average salary was calculated for non-registered executives and general employees at department-head level and below, excluding registered executives, and the number of employees was analyzed based on the number of National Pension subscribers.
As a result of the analysis, Korea CXO Institute, using the audit report (based on separate financial statements) submitted on the 12th, assessed that the expected average annual salary per employee at Samsung Electronics in 2025 will be in the range of 153 million won to 158 million won. Considering that the actual average compensation paid in 2024 was around 130 million won, this means that employees' annual pay packets will fatten by close to 20% in just one year.
Korea CXO Research Institute announced on the 19th its "2025 Analysis of Samsung Electronics Employees' Average Compensation, Changes in Labor Costs, and Monthly National Pension Subscriber Status." Korea CXO Research Institute
According to the institute, if the total employee salary amount stated in Samsung Electronics' audit report is set at 100, the total employee salary amount disclosed in the actual business report has remained at around 98% to 100% each year. By year, the figures are: 97.8% in 2017, 99.9% in 2018, 99.8% in 2019, 98.8% in 2020, 100.5% in 2021, 98.5% in 2022, 98.6% in 2023, and 100.7% in 2024.
Through the audit report submitted on the 12th, Samsung Electronics' total employee compensation (salary plus retirement benefits) for 2025 was identified as 19.7963 trillion won, and the total compensation for executives and employees to be disclosed soon in the business report is highly likely to be in the range of 19.4 trillion won to 19.93 trillion won. This figure was calculated assuming the number of Samsung Electronics employees to be between 125,300 and 127,100.
Meanwhile, as of December last year, the number of Samsung Electronics employees based on National Pension subscribers was 124,996, which is counted as a decrease of 597 compared with December 2024 (125,593). This contrasts with the increase of more than 4,716 between December 2023 and December 2024. Although the number of National Pension subscribers does not exactly match the total number of employees, it can be inferred that, compared with 2024, new hiring and similar activities declined relatively last year.
Oilseon, head of Korea CXO Institute, said, "As artificial intelligence (AI) advances rapidly, an 'AI-era employment backlash' phenomenon is emerging, in which some global tech companies are cutting jobs even when their performance is strong," adding, "There is a high possibility that operating profit and other performance indicators at major conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, will improve significantly this year, but the pace of employment growth may be slower than expected due to reasons such as AI adoption and management efficiency."
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