Memory giant Micron Technology recently announced that it will distribute fiscal year 2026 rewards to over 60,000 employees worldwide, marking the highest amount since the company's founding.
Among these benefits, each employee in the Taiwan region can receive up to NT$1 million (approximately RMB 228,000) in cash appreciation bonuses, with total compensation for production line employees equivalent to 35 to 68 months of salary.
Micron's compensation package this time covers an extremely wide range. Every employee in Taiwan who joined before August 29, 2025, will receive a NT$1 million appreciation bonus.
For employees in Taiwan, cash compensation for fiscal year 2026 starts at NT$1.7 million (approximately RMB 388,000). The average cash compensation for entry-level engineers reaches NT$2.9 million (approximately RMB 661,000), and when stock awards are included, the average total compensation is about NT$3.4 million (approximately RMB 775,000).
Additionally, annual performance-based salary adjustments and stock awards achieve 100% coverage, giving every employee the opportunity to become a company shareholder.
However, this "highest bonus in history" has not quelled the labor dispute. The Micron Taoyuan Union issued a statement saying that consensus has not yet been reached, insisting on its demand to allocate 15% of operating profits as employee bonuses, and warning that if the company does not respond, it will continue to proceed with strike procedures.
The union's core demand is not the one-time bonus amount, but rather the establishment of a transparent, predictable profit-sharing system directly linked to company profits. Using the employee dividend mechanisms at Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as benchmarks, the union pointed out that the profit-sharing arrangements at Samsung and SK Hynix have widened the compensation gap between Micron employees and their South Korean counterparts.
The second round of mediation between labor and management is currently scheduled for September 21. Micron has approximately 15,000 employees in the Taiwan region, with its two major facilities in Taoyuan and Taichung serving as global core production bases for advanced memory chips, representing cumulative investments exceeding NT$1.6 trillion (approximately RMB 362 billion).
If mediation fails and a strike succeeds, Micron's DRAM output will be impacted. With global DRAM supply already tight due to AI demand, any production disruption will further drive up memory prices, exacerbating cost pressures for PC and smartphone manufacturers.