TSMC dividend controversy continues to spread! Wei Zhejia: This year’s total bonuses are up 30%, and he recommends that employees buy more shares of the company’s own stock

In response to the controversy over TSMC cutting employee dividend payouts, Wei Zhe-Jia urgently called an emergency meeting to clarify. Although the allocation percentage was lowered, the company’s profits surged, and total employee dividends for this year are expected to increase by 30%. He also pledged that base-level pay raises will be larger than those for supervisors, and encouraged employees to buy the company’s stock with their own funds.

TSMC dividend cut sparks controversy, Wei Zhe-Jia urgently communicates

Recently, on PTT, Dcard, and Facebook, rumors spread that TSMC had adjusted the ratio of employee dividend payouts, leading some employees to express dissatisfaction on social media and even threaten to emulate South Korean Samsung’s union strike. To quickly put out the fire, TSMC Chairman Wei Zhe-Jia yesterday (5/27) canceled his originally scheduled events and personally held an online cross-plant meeting to communicate with employees.

According to Huashi News, Wei Zhe-Jia sent an internal message to employees before the meeting, saying that the adjustment to the rewards system was to ensure the company’s future competitiveness, not to diminish recognition for colleagues.

He emphasized that although the dividend payout ratio was reduced, the total dividend amount employees can actually receive this year is still expected to be 30% higher than last year, and he hopes to stabilize morale through his personal clarification.

TSMC dividend payouts focus on three aspects, pledging unchanged care for employees

According to the Central News Agency, Wei Zhe-Jia explained in the communication meeting that TSMC’s distribution of earnings mainly focuses on three areas: employees, shareholders, and society. The company must balance employee welfare, reasonable returns for shareholders, and corporate social responsibility.

He admitted that this year, because it has increased investment in social sustainability resources and ESG, the share of employee dividends in last year’s profits fell from 12% to about 10%. However, since TSMC’s overall profit grew by more than 50% last year, with the profit base expanding, this year’s total bonus that employees can receive is still expected to increase by about 30% compared with last year.

Wei Zhe-Jia pledged that the company’s care for employees would not change. From 2023 to now, the year-over-year growth in employee dividend payouts has never been less than 30%. If employees’ performance evaluations this year are consistent with last year, the full-year dividend payout growth will exceed 30%, and the increase in base-level pay will be higher than that for supervisors.

• Related report:** Rumors of TSMC cutting dividends and possible strikes? Officially refuted: confident that this year’s dividends will exceed last year’s**

Wei Zhe-Jia encourages employees to use their dividend payouts to buy the company’s stock

In addition to explaining the dividend structure, Wei Zhe-Jia also emphasized that TSMC’s dividend payouts have no ceiling, and the company is not worried about competitors poaching talent. It also will not determine the amount of bonuses based on whether each unit makes money or not.

Wei Zhe-Jia said he is very confident about the company’s future, and therefore strongly recommends that employees use their dividend payouts to buy the company’s stock. He also asked employees to remember what he said, guaranteeing that this will ensure a worry-free future.

XU Xiu-Lan, Chairman of GlobalWafers, also shared her views on labor-management relations in the semiconductor industry. In an interview with Vision Magazine, she said that unions are not the key factor affecting corporate performance; what truly matters is whether a company is willing to do a good job with employees on profit sharing. Judging by Taiwan’s culture, the overall labor-management atmosphere is actually relatively harmonious.