SK Hynix is riding the AI memory boom, posting record profits. Outside analysts, applying the company's standard 10% profit-sharing rule, calculated that Korean employees could take home year-end bonuses exceeding 3 million yuan (about $415,000). But multiple Chinese employees tell a different story. If headquarters doles out 3 million, they say, Chinese workers get less than 5% of that.
The gap comes down to fundamentally different compensation structures. Korean headquarters pays bonuses based on a full 12 months of high base salary. Chinese operations, on the other hand, have a much lower base, and there's no stock or equivalent incentives. One technical staffer with over a decade at the company says his best bonus ever was just over 100,000 yuan (about $14,000). In 2023, during the industry downturn, his bonus was exactly zero.
Beyond missing out on the AI wealth machine, Chinese employees also hit a hard ceiling. The same staffer notes that management is almost entirely Korean — "Chinese people cannot become managers," he says. Multiple former employees echo that SK Hynix treats its China operations as little more than a factory or sales office, with core profit sharing reserved for workers in Korea.