TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — News broke on Tuesday (March 29) that major IC designer Novatek Microelectronics (聯詠科技) is handing out up to 50 months' salary in year-end bonuses to its employees.

That day, Novatek notified its employees of the amount of their year-end bonuses. A netizen who claimed to be an employee of Novatek wrote on the online message board PTT that his year-end bonus for 2021 was twice as high as that for 2020, and his bonus for this year is higher than his annual salary for 2021.

Novatek reportedly distributes its year-end bonuses in quarterly increments in March, June, September, and December. Staff must continue to work for the firm to be able to receive them.

According to ETtoday, most Novatek employees are seeing their year-end bonuses double from the previous year. Some, however, are to receive 30 months' and even 50 months' pay.

Some engineers are reportedly receiving NT$3-million (US$105,000) bonuses while some senior division directors are getting more than NT$10 million in bonuses.

The firm's annual revenue last year was NT$135.366 billion, an annual increase of 69.3%. The gross profit margin was 49.79%, a year-on-year increase of 14.82 percentage points.

The operating profit margin was 35.29%, a year-on-year increase of 16.81 percentage points. Net profits after tax were NT$38.866 billion, a 229% increase from the previous year. Earnings per share for the year was NT$63.87, with revenue and profit reaching new highs.