In the first half of this year, one in five high earners at major corporations in South Korea received stock-based compensation. Among the 145 high earners who received such compensation, the total amount reached 368.9 billion won, with SK and Doosan accounting for over 60% of the total.
On August 19, CEO Score, a corporate data research institute, reported that 661 employees received over 50 million won in total compensation during the first half of the year. Of these, 145 individuals, or 21.9%, received stock-based compensation, including restricted stock units (RSUs), performance stock units (PSUs), stock options, and stock appreciation rights (SARs). The stock-based compensation amounted to 368.9 billion won, which represents 36.4% of the total compensation of 1.0145 trillion won, excluding retirement income.
By group, SK had the largest stock-based compensation amounting to 153.4 billion won, accounting for 41.6% of the total. Doosan followed with 80.8 billion won (21.9%). Together, the stock-based compensation from these two groups totaled 234.3 billion won, or 63.5% of the overall amount. This increase in stock compensation value is attributed to improved performance in the semiconductor and power generation sectors, driven by growth in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which has led to rising stock prices for related affiliates.
Following SK and Doosan, Orion reported 24.1 billion won (6.5%), HYBE 22.5 billion won (6.1%), Samsung 20 billion won (5.4%), and both LS and Kakao recorded 15.9 billion won (4.3%) each.
In terms of the number of recipients, SK had the highest with 30 individuals, making up 20.7% of the total. Doosan had 18 recipients (12.4%), Samsung 16 (11.0%), LS and Kakao each had 9 (6.2%), Mirae Asset 7 (4.8%), and Hyundai Motor 6 (4.1%).
Stock-based compensation was predominantly awarded to professional managers rather than owners. Among the 145 recipients, 136 were professional managers, representing 93.8%. They received a total of 302.3 billion won, or 82.0% of the total stock compensation. The owner families accounted for 9 individuals, receiving 66.6 billion won.
The highest stock compensation among owner families went to Park Jung-won, Chairman of Doosan Group. He received 37.6 billion won, which is 82.5% of his total compensation of 45.6 billion won for the first half of the year.
Notably, the RSUs granted to Chairman Park in 2023 were valued at approximately 2.8 billion won at the time of issuance, but due to the rise in Doosan's stock price, the value increased to about 37.6 billion won at the time of actual stock issuance, reflecting a 13-fold increase.
Following Chairman Park, Park Ji-won, Chairman of Doosan Enerbility, received 17.4 billion won in stock compensation. Other notable recipients included Koo Ja-eun, Chairman of LS Group, with 7.4 billion won, Cho Won-tae, Chairman of Hanjin Group, with 1.2 billion won, and Yoon Sae-bom, Vice Chairman of Woongjin Group, with 1.1 billion won.
Among professional managers, the top five recipients of stock-based compensation were all from SK Group. Kwon No-jung, President of SK Hynix, received 21.8 billion won, followed by Song Jae-seung, CIO of SK Square, with 17.9 billion won, Jeong Jae-hun, President of SK Telecom, with 16.7 billion won, Park Jeong-ho, Management Advisor at SK Hynix, with 16.0 billion won, and Choi Jun-ki, also from SK Hynix, with 12.4 billion won.
Recently, major corporations have been expanding stock-based compensation, such as RSUs, to align long-term employee performance with corporate value and to prevent key talent from leaving. As stock prices rise, the payouts also increase, leading to a trend where improved corporate performance and rising stock prices contribute to higher compensation.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.