Less than 5% of the South Korean headquarters' share? SK Hynix's AI development is in full swing, while Chinese employees reveal they're missing out on a 3 million yuan year-end bonus.

According to Beating's monitoring, driven by the surge in demand for AI storage, SK Hynix's profits have repeatedly hit new highs this year. Previously, based on its 10% profit-sharing policy, it was estimated that South Korean employees could receive a staggering year-end bonus exceeding 3 million RMB. However, several employees in the China region recently revealed a huge gap in compensation between the two locations: if the South Korean headquarters distributes 3 million RMB, Chinese employees receive less than 5%. This significant disparity stems from the different underlying salary structures. Bonuses at the South Korean headquarters are based on a high base salary for 12 months of the year; while in China, not only is the base salary low, but there are also no stock options or other related incentives. A key technical staff member in the China region with over 10 years of experience stated that his highest performance bonus was only slightly over 100,000 RMB, and during the industry downturn in 2023, his bonus was practically zero. Besides missing out on the wealth-generating benefits of AI, the glass ceiling is another major pain point. The aforementioned employee emphasized that the company's management is almost entirely dominated by South Koreans, and "Chinese people cannot become managers." Several former employees also admitted that the South Korean storage giant basically only regarded its Chinese branches as processing plants or sales offices, and the distribution of core profits had nothing to do with the mainland employees.