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That's literally insane for Korean living standards. Those people can basically retire
Imagine the world, where instead of making billionaires and trillionaires, we would actually share with society. Providing affordable products/services to common people. Decommodification of life.

There's no money for public investments, but there is always money for wars. There's no money for raises and bonuses for workers, until workers show there's no company without them.

So, if there's no money for public investments, it's time to show there's no public for their wars and exploitation.

I think it’s insane anywhere. Would have to put about 15-20 years worth of bonuses to reach that amount…
That's a bit of a stretch, but the number is bigger than I expected!
It is the unions not Samsung's generosity; As union membership declines, inequality rises in the US while in Korea they are a force to be taken into consideration.
I guarantee the "median" payout is nowhere near that. The article said the average pay is 158 million won. I bet the median pay is less than half that.
You can retire in Korea on 200K after tax?
I think if they retire Samsung loses bunch of knowledge that is required for keeping lights up.

I don’t think they will be allowed to retire.

They probably slogged to death before this and finally are recouping what they were owed over their lifetime if you put things into perspective. I feel happy for them and hope they use it wisely and actually retire.
Finally, some feel good news about AI.
From our laid off workers pockets to Samsung employees’!
This is what bonuses would average out to in the US as well. It’s just that the CEO would get $100 million and the workers maybe $10k each. Does the article say how it’s going to work?
Maybe that’s still what’s happening, they’re talking about average after all :)
Perhaps U.S. workers could threaten to strike as well...
> Does the article say how it’s going to work?

You pay them the bonus, it shows on the pay cheque, like every salary bonus. What about this is something you'd expect in an article?

Exactly. I came here to say the same thing.
Meanwhile tech workers in the US spend all day online defending billionaires who wouldn't piss on them to put out a fire and arguing about why we can't have unions because blah blah blah rugged individualism.
I find this complaint hard to square when US developers earn "moon money" compared to both: a) fields requiring similar levels of expertise like EE or Mech-E and b) international developers in similar roles. Plus, equity.

[GIF of Woody Harrelson wiping tears with money]

The union makes us strong.

-- A proud programming union worker in South Korea since 2018.

What’s an average nvidia “tech employee” worth today? How about compared to their base salary vs. Samsung line workers?

You have a point. But on this precise topic it’s pretty hard to make. A tiny handful of companies who are winners beyond anyone’s expectations simply do not matter.

There is exactly zero percent chance this profit sharing contract would have been negotiated by either party as it is if this had been remotely predicted in advance. Same as the retrospectively extremely lucrative RSUs granted to nvidia employees just five years ago.

Tech folks employed by the top tech companies have been fine. I do not cry even a minute for them. The fun part of the Korean memory worker compensation is that blue collar folks finally are getting just a little bit of the taste the laptop class has been part of for so long. And it is likely to be comparatively very fleeting.

It would be ungrateful to complain after earning enough in stock options and RSU's to retire early.

(It sounds like the union got a great deal for these workers, though.)

> Meanwhile tech workers in the US spend all day online defending billionaires

Tech pulled a great trick here: equity.

America as a whole pulled a similar trick: 401k

It’s hard to fight the billionaires when all your money depends on not fighting them.

Tech workers get paid in equity and many in the semiconductor industry are making far far more than this a year with all the equity appreciation.
But no one should argue with this, it is as sound as physics;no unions no equality in salaries https://www.epi.org/news/union-membership-declines-inequalit...
In all honesty, I’d rather get paid the $500k/yr people make here than have a union negotiate a $350k one time bonus in a time of unprecedented success. Given these two options, I’m not that eager to have their system.
I mean as someone who works in American AI chip firms , our compensation is larger. You can bitch about America as much as you want but it's pretty much the best in terms of monetary compensation

Of course I'm late to the game. My colleagues who have been here ten years are either extremely wealthy and bored or sailing the Caribbean at this point. Every other week someone is taking a sabbatical

Doesnt need to be tech. My blue collar UPS worker friend is all in on down with regulations, and claimed if anything we meed MORE billionaires. Many in America see regulation and taxes in all forms as bad, and the primary thing holding back prosperity for all.

I remember thinking like this when i was younger (hes older than me). Then here i am working nearly half as many hours as this guy, for 5-10x the pay.

This is a widespread, pervasive train of thought in America. Yet i wonder as the houses and healthcare stay expensive, food and fuel too... at some point this mental model breaks right?

I have a hard time understanding this complaint. A US tech worker earning $340k bonus wouldn't even make news, it happens every year all around the silicon valley.

That is, a US tech worker is taking much more for their own from those billionaire employers, compared to what Samsung's workers managed to do after a lot of haggling.

I do wonder if this is good for Korea in the long run. There's not many employers like Samsung and SK that can provide this level of compensation for cost centers. I think many more workers are going to start demanding red carpet treatment when companies are choosing to outright shut down or move operations out of Korea due to increasing pressure from unions. ex) Hanjin, SsangYong Motor, GM, Renault Samsung/Renault Korea, Nestle, Tetra Pak, Hyundai Motor, HomePlus....
It probably is. Sharing in what is essentially a massive windfall is most likely positive. This money will get spend or invested by employees. Which should stimulate the economy at much higher level if it just stayed in stock market.

This is not standard thing. This is response in situation where company has generated massively more profit than any time previously and likely any time in future after market stabilises. Expectation that at least part is shared with employees should not be unreasonable.

It is an abhorrent reflection of the society that this is a valid kneejerk response.
> chip workers

> cost centres

What?

In what way are manufacturing workers a cost centre?

They aren’t call centre workers.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies are cutting our already-shitty vacation and leave.
When the government is: of the many, for the few.
unions work
This is wonderful!
Big up for the unions!
Next post will detail a 300 percent increase in chip workers LOL
Do not get deceived by the average number. I'm pretty sure that most of the money of the total goes to a handful of people, and the small remaining amount will be shared by the rest. Emphasizing the average amount is just their PR strategy.
Nice. Now, the Fortune 500, please.
Samsung chip workers get $340k bonuses. American tech workers get laid off because AI is 'optimizing headcount.' Different kind of AI dividend
And, soon someone will come along claiming unions and strikes don’t work. /s
Any bonus is better than no bonus but averages are deceiving. Maybe VPs would get 10m and line workers 10k ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So does Samsung have a union?

How about TSMC or ASML?

I'm never a big fan of Samsung haha. I'm more like a fan of Google as hardware