SK Hynix, average bonus of $900,000?

In South Korea’s booming chip industry, optimistic forecasts suggest that bonuses may soon approach $900,000 (6.15 million RMB per month), intensifying concerns about growing inequality.

SK Hynix expects one-off bonuses related to the artificial intelligence boom to soar to several times the income of traditional high-paying professions. This windfall highlights the Bank of Korea’s concern that the tech boom will give rise to a “K-shaped” economy—where a small group of workers advance rapidly while the rest struggle.

On April 23rd, SK Hynix announced in Seoul that its quarterly operating profit had surged fivefold to a record 37.61 trillion won (about 32.4 billion SGD), which illustrates this phenomenon. Less than half an hour later, the Bank of Korea announced that, driven by tech exports, South Korea’s GDP grew by 1.7% in the first quarter, surpassing even the most optimistic economists’ expectations.

SK Hynix’s sales nearly tripled, boosted by surging demand for artificial intelligence and data centers, which also pushed up memory prices. The entire industry is experiencing a similar boom: Samsung Electronics reported preliminary results in April showing its first-quarter operating profit increased more than eightfold to a record high.

In 2025, SK Hynix reached a landmark agreement with its labor union to distribute about 10% of operating profits as bonuses to employees. The result: in 2025, the average employee bonus will be about 1.5 times their annual salary.

These figures are set to surge. According to analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg, SK Hynix’s annual operating profit may reach nearly 207.4 trillion won in 2026, and 272.4 trillion won in 2027. Macquarie is even more optimistic, predicting profits will hit 447 trillion won in 2027.

Based on its approximately 34,000 domestic employees, this means that by 2026, the average employee bonus could reach $400,000 to $540,000, and if Macquarie’s profit forecast proves accurate, in 2027 each employee’s average bonus will hit an astounding $878,000.

The company declined to comment on bonuses, but stated during its April 23rd earnings call that it plans to reinvest most of the windfall back into the business.

Even at the lowest estimates, the total bonuses are more than 20 times the national average annual income for a workforce of nearly 30 million people. Some posts on anonymous online workplace communities reflect the strong resentment of workers in industries being left behind by the times.

A Hyundai Motor employee wrote that such huge bonuses “make it difficult to talk about fairness in a highly competitive labor market.” A veterinarian posted on the same platform stating he spent years in training, took on debts, and worked long hours, but ultimately earned only a fraction of what some chip workers receive as bonuses.

This disparity also worries the Bank of Korea. The bank warns that the benefits from the tech industry, the stock market, and artificial intelligence are disproportionately flowing to high-income groups, with limited spillover effects on the overall economy.

The central bank stated that, excluding information technology, the economic growth rate in 2026 would fall by about 0.4 percentage points, and warned that the widening industry gap could lead to a disconnect between real growth and the economic situation. The bank added that this “K-shaped recovery” will be unsustainable.

Nomura economist Park Jung-woo noted that the chip industry is highly dependent on imported equipment and is capital-intensive, meaning its boom has limited impact on the broader labor market and domestic investment. However, he added, the gains can more widely benefit the population through financial channels such as stock ownership and shareholder returns.

Mr. Park said: “Directly focusing on imbalances does not solve the problem—it’s like scratching an itch, which only makes things worse. The focus should be on strengthening indirect channels so that more people can benefit.”