Samsung Electronics’ Seocho building in Seoul (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – For the first time, the average annual salary of an external director at Samsung Electronics has surpassed the 200 million won mark, setting a new precedent in the compensation for board members within the company.
According to a report by CEO Score, a corporate data research firm, as of the end of last year, Samsung was the only company among the top 100 firms by market capitalization in South Korea to exceed this threshold, with an average compensation of 202 million won per external director, marking an 11.5% increase from the previous year’s 182.2 million won.
This milestone comes five years after Samsung first breached the 100 million won average annual salary for external directors in 2018, demonstrating a significant upward trend in board member compensation.
In the last year, Samsung convened its board for a total of eight meetings, translating to an average earning of 25.4 million won per director for each meeting attended.
However, Samsung plans to propose a reduction in the total remuneration limit for directors from last year’s 48 billion won to 43 billion won at the upcoming annual shareholders’ meeting on March 20.
Following Samsung, SK Telecom ranked second in the average salary for external directors, paying an average of 168.7 million won, a slight 1.5% increase from the previous year. SK Square secured the third spot with an average compensation of 159.5 million won, followed by Samsung C&T and Hyundai Motor.
SK Telecom Headquarters in SEOUL
Among the top 100 companies by market capitalization that have disclosed their compensation figures, several others joined the ’100 Million Club,’ including POSCO Holdings, SKC, Naver, LG, LG Electronics, and Hyundai Mobis.
On the flip side, LG Chem, which had previously provided an average of 100 million won to its external directors in 2022, saw a 2% decrease in compensation last year, dropping out of the ’100 Million Club’ with an average payment of 98 million won.
Other companies anticipated to report annual salaries exceeding 100 million won based on 2022 figures include SK Innovation, SK, SK Hynix, SK I Technology, and LG Display.
Conversely, companies like LG Energy Solution, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Engineering, Hanwha Solutions, Hanwha Aerospace, Korean Air, Korea Zinc, and POSCO DX are among the 13 that reportedly reduced the average compensation for their external directors compared to the previous year.
CEO Score also noted that only three companies among the top 100 by market capitalization paid their external directors less than 50 million won, including Coway, Kakao Pay, and Cosmo Advanced Materials.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
