SK hynix to Pay 60% of Profit-Sharing Bonus in Company Stock

* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six tailored news items by reader type.

1. SK hynix Overhauls Bonus Payment — Shifts to 60% Company Stock, 40% Cash

Key summary: SK hynix labor and management have agreed on a tentative 2026 wage and collective agreement that scraps the all-cash profit-sharing (PS) payment method and converts 60% into company stock. The wage increase was set at 6.3%, up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier, and the mortgage limit for married employees was also expanded to 200 million won from the previous 100 million won. As a safeguard to reduce the risk of losses from falling share prices, the reference price for the stock will be the lowest closing price among the dates of the preliminary earnings disclosure, the cash payment and the stock payment. The shift in bonus structure from a cash focus to a stock-linked method is seen as one that could spread to other large companies.

2. Naver Union Launches Push for Unified Bargaining, Presents Five Agenda Items to Management

Key summary: Citing the enforcement of the so-called "Yellow Envelope Act," the Naver union has demanded that the parent company take part in unified bargaining, presenting five agenda items including expanded welfare programs and improved working conditions. Critics note that 150 negotiation sessions were held at 16 affiliates over the past year, but a structure repeatedly played out in which affiliates could not make their own decisions without the parent company's agreement. Naver Z, whose wage talks broke down, has secured the right to strike and could launch collective action on September 9 if management does not respond by the end of August. The issue of pay and treatment gaps among affiliates is emerging as a labor-management agenda across the Big Tech industry.

3. Japan Allows 100-Hour Work Months, Lifting Its 45-Hour Overtime Cap

Key summary: Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will, starting next month, effectively allow overtime of up to 100 hours a month for companies with special labor-management clauses. The measure is seen as the biggest deregulation since the "work-style reform law" introduced in the wake of the death from overwork of a Dentsu employee in 2018. About 50% of all companies have concluded labor-management agreements, of which 70% hold special clauses of less than 100 hours a month, according to the ministry. Amid concerns that it could weaken the drive to curb overtime, the case is drawing attention as a leading example for gauging the direction of working-hour rules that may matter to Korean workers as well.

4. Chey Tae-won Lays Out AI Future for Young People on "Great Minds"

Key summary: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will take part in a lecture on EBS's "Great Minds" on the 14th of next month, engaging with an audience aged 19 to 34 on the theme of "AI, New Capitalism and Youth." He is the first Korean speaker to appear on the program, joining the Season 6 lineup alongside professors such as Paul Krugman, Ben Bernanke and Geoffrey Hinton. Chey has previously pointed to "four muscles" — thinking, adaptation, empathy and body skills — as core competitiveness in the AI era, along with the importance of generalist talent. His presentation of a New Capitalism structure is seen as an alternative to ease concerns about job losses driven by the spread of AI.

5. "A Flood of Agents Is 'Technical Debt'… Hard to Replace Enterprise Software"

Key summary: Matthew Miller, a vice president at Salesforce's Tableau, has drawn a line under the so-called "SaaSpocalypse" concern that AI agents will fully replace enterprise software. The warning is that if non-experts mass-produce agents without control, "technical debt" — the ongoing cost of maintenance and security — will pile up at companies. The analysis is that deterministic AI and data semantics (term standardization) technology are drawing attention on the ground at companies as ways to overcome the limits of general-purpose AI, such as hallucination errors. It offers the lesson that new employees should also weigh reliability, security and maintenance standards when adopting or using AI tools.

6. From Cutting to Sewing… K-Fashion Puts on Physical AI

Key summary: Domestic textile and fashion companies such as Hansae, Bokwang INT and Korean Friends are expanding the adoption of AI and robotics across manufacturing floors, including cutting, sewing and inspection. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will also push an "advanced future textile development project" investing a total of 310 billion won from 2028 to 2034, supporting the AI transformation of manufacturing floors. With more than 200 companies — far exceeding expectations — taking part in a demand survey, demand for the AI transformation of textile manufacturing has surged. As the fashion industry's use of AI, once confined to software, expands across the production process, the ability to link AI and robots is emerging as a new requirement in related jobs.