SK Hynix Workers Were Offered A 6.3% Pay Raise. They Rejected The Deal By Just 25 Votes.

SK Hynix workers narrowly rejected a tentative wage agreement that included a 6.3% salary increase and major changes to performance bonuses, with just 25 votes separating the two sides after two months of negotiations.

Of the 15,045 union members who voted, 7,535, or 50.08%, opposed the agreement, while 7,510 supported it, Yonhap News Agency reported. Turnout reached 93.8% among the union's 16,083 members, and management and labor representatives are now expected to return to negotiations, with the bonus payment structure likely to remain a central issue.

The tentative agreement would have raised wages by 6.3% and changed how SK Hynix distributes its profit-sharing bonuses. Under the proposal, 40% of the bonus would be paid in cash and 60% in company shares, with part of the stock immediately available for sale and the remainder deferred over two years, according to Reuters.

Workers had previously agreed with management to set aside 10% of annual operating profit for performance bonuses under a system scheduled to remain in place for 10 years. That arrangement called for 80% of the award to be paid immediately in cash and the remaining 20% to be deferred over two years. The proposed switch to a much larger stock component drew opposition from workers concerned that their compensation would become more exposed to fluctuations in SK Hynix's share price, The Korea Times reported.

The disagreement comes during an exceptionally profitable period for the world's second-largest memory chipmaker. SK Hynix reported record second-quarter results in July as demand for high-bandwidth memory and other products used in AI servers continued to climb. Revenue reached 79.3 trillion won in the quarter, while operating profit rose to 60.5 trillion won, according to the company's latest earnings release.

Those profits have also increased the size of potential employee payouts. Workers are expected to receive an average performance bonus of about 779 million won ($547,000) for 2026, although actual payments vary depending on position and individual evaluations, Yahoo Finance reported.

SK Hynix shares had reached a record high in June as investors bet on continued AI-driven demand before retreating amid concerns over heavy technology spending. The stock fell 4.9% on Tuesday morning, compared with a 2.2% decline in South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index, according to Reuters.

The labor dispute follows another closely watched pay negotiation at rival Samsung Electronics. Samsung and its union reached an agreement in May that allocated 10.5% of annual semiconductor operating profit to special employee bonuses, largely paid in company shares, helping avert a planned strike involving about 48,000 workers, Reuters reported.

SK Hynix workers have rejected tentative wage agreements before, including in 2023 and 2024, after which management and the union resumed negotiations, according to Yonhap.