Samsung Electronics is seeing an increasing number of employees born in the 1990s voluntarily opting for voluntary retirement, a move previously centered around high-tenure staff.
This trend is believed to be driven by sluggish earnings in finished product businesses, including smartphones, TVs, and home appliances, alongside hundreds of millions of won in voluntary retirement compensation.
According to the industry, it has been confirmed that employees born in the 1990s in Samsung Electronics' Mobile Experience (MX) division recently chose voluntary retirement and actually left the company.
Unlike the traditional demographic for voluntary retirement, these younger employees reportedly did not wait for proposals from the human resources team. Instead, they inquired about eligibility and conditions first before proceeding with their departure.
Samsung Electronics has operated a continuous voluntary retirement system for several years.
While the HR team traditionally approached high-tenure staff first, such as general manager-level CL4 employees, younger workers—including those born in the 1990s—have recently started expressing their intent to take voluntary retirement on their own initiative.
Substantial retirement compensation also appears to have influenced the trend.
Voluntary severance pay is calculated individually based on years of service and performance evaluations. For CL2 employees, traditionally equivalent to staff or assistant manager levels, payouts are reportedly around 400 million won including performance-linked shares, while CL4 general managers can receive even higher compensation.
The recent wave of voluntary retirements among younger employees also coincides with declining performance in the MX division.
The MX and Networks division, which has sustained Samsung Electronics' finished product business on the back of Galaxy smartphones, recorded 33.2 trillion won in revenue and an operating loss of 700 billion won in the second quarter.
Although sales of the Galaxy S26 and A series remained solid, rising component prices such as memory significantly increased cost pressures.
Along with the MX division, TVs and home appliances also underperformed, leading the entire Device eXperience (DX) division—which oversees smartphones and home appliances—to post an operating loss of 800 billion won.
This marks the first time the DX division has recorded a quarterly deficit since its establishment.
Discontent among employees in other divisions regarding compensation gaps with the semiconductor sector also persists.
Following the labor-management wage negotiations in May, a special management performance bonus was newly established exclusively for the semiconductor (DS) division. This prompted Roh Tae-moon, head of the DX division, to personally step in to soothe employees, acknowledging that they likely felt alienated and deprived.
Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Kim In-sun | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
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