The Samsung Galaxy S25 will be equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite globally instead of the Exynos 2500 Exynos 2500, indicating that Samsung’s next generation of flagship chips are once again unable to compete with Qualcomm. As Korean newspaper The Chosun Daily recently learned from industry sources, Samsung sees workers’ rights in South Korea as a central part of the issue.
Indeed, employees in South Korea can “only” work a maximum of 52 hours per week, including 12 hours of overtime. As a result, employees often have to leave work and return home while important tasks have not yet been completed. This is why key employees of the Exynos team are said to have worked unpaid overtime more and more frequently in recent years, with these overtime hours not being recorded.
Samsung management has reportedly started talks with lawmakers to discuss the “effectiveness of the 52-hour workweek” and possibly obtain a waiver. However, Samsung employees pointed out to Chosun Daily that increasing working hours would not automatically lead to more innovation and technological breakthroughs.
Similar laws aimed at protecting workers also exist in countries where Samsung’s main competitors are based. TSMC in Taiwan, for example, is subject to a limit of 40 hours plus 36 hours of overtime per month, or an average of around 48 hours per week. In the United States, on the other hand, there are no comparable limits, meaning that Qualcomm and Apple can demand more working hours from their employees, although the chip development teams of these two companies are also much more important, according to the Chosun Daily.
