Hyundai's AI-era wage reform faces productivity test

Hyundai Motor’s artificial intelligence (AI)-sparked wage overhaul faces a critical task of redesigning a compensation system in ways that would protect workers’ income without undermining productivity, experts said Monday.

The carmaker’s management and labor union are reviewing the introduction of the so-called "complete monthly wage system," under which overtime and other variable allowances — currently paid based on hours worked — will be incorporated into production workers’ fixed monthly salaries.

The initiative will be studied through a joint labor-management task force.

Hyundai already shifted its production workers from an hourly wage system to monthly salaries in 2012.

However, overtime and night-shift allowances are still paid according to actual hours worked.

The proposed reform would reduce those monthly fluctuations by converting part of the variable pay into fixed wages, so factory workers can ensure their income stability even after the carmaker’s planned deployment of humanoid robots across its major production lines here and abroad.

Hyundai Motor Group is ac ...