Employee Ownership By the Numbers
Estimated Number of Plans and Employees; Value of Plan Assets.
Estimated Number of Plans and Employees; Value of Plan Assets.
The Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice–In 1985, Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) members initiated and mobilized bipartisan support for Congressional legislation which established the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice under President Ronald Reagan. Project Economic Justice, which was first conceived in a strategy paper authored by CESJ, offered a revolutionary economic alternative to military solutions to regional conflicts in Central America and the Caribbean. Enacted as part of the International Security and Development Cooperation Act of 1985, this legislation created the first presidential task force to be totally funded with private donations and supported by both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. Former Ambassador to the Organization of American States and the European Community, The Hon. J. William Middendorf II, served as Chairman. CESJ’s president, Norman G. Kurland, served as deputy chairman.
With the emergence of worker-owned apps, where they own and run the marketplace themselves, the on-demand labor apps are seeing a new light. It’s a trend that could save the gig economy from itself. One of these apps is Up & Go, which lets you order house-cleaning services in New York City. The cleaners are … Read More
Mission-led employee-owned firms embody a powerful model of enterprise design for a new era of environmental sustainability and social equity. These companies have much to teach the business world about ownership design for the 21st century and beyond. This report shares the story of this emerging model, embodied in 50-plus firms that are employee owned … Read More
CoopGateway is the world’s largest digital library on cooperatives and mutuals. Created by the Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives of HEC Montréal, CoopGateway aims to promote access, development and sharing of knowledge on cooperatives and mutuals in the digital age.
American workers at nearly every level of the income spectrum fail to save properly to be secure in retirement. Addressing this challenge will require a comprehensive policy discussion by both federal and state policymakers. Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are the primary form of employee ownership, and for reasons explored in this report, companies organized … Read More
The purpose of this paper is to explore employee participation in ownership and control in a modern corporation and its impacts on intra-organizational social capital and workplace dynamics.
Stakeholder capitalism seeks to benefit multiple stakeholders, rather than primarily shareholders. Two increasingly popular forms are the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and the benefit corporation. But what happens when a company combines these structures? While the benefit corporation’s expanded stakeholder mandate may appear to come at the expense of employee-owner wealth and the potential … Read More
This report explores access to equity compensation and capital shares in the tech sector, which merits special attention for the following two reasons. First, the tech industry is heavily supported by the federal government. Second, outside industries often emulate the innovative culture and practices of the technology sector.
Transitioning your small business to employee ownership can have positive impacts on employee engagement, productivity, and retention; anchor a lasting legacy for your efforts building the business; and offer a financially rewarding exit path that can be supported by experienced professional assistance. Small business owners throughout the United States are increasingly seeing employees as highly … Read More
Democracy has been disrupted by capitalism to the point of near extinction. Isabelle Ferreras proposes a simple, yet revolutionary solution: democratizing capitalism. Starting with the sociological observation that workers expect to be treated as full citizens, and drawing on the history of Western democracies, this book argues that workplaces are part of the public sphere, … Read More
This easy-to-read guide to employee ownership introduces what employee ownership means and how it works, interspersing information with company profiles. Also see the companion website at www.esopinfo.org.
This special section of The Sociological Quarterly, edited by Joyce Rothschild includes the following articles: The Logic of a Co-Operative Economy and Democracy 2.0: Recovering the Possibilities for Autonomy, Creativity, Solidarity and Common Purpose by Joyce Rothschild When Freedom is Not an Endless Meeting: A New Look at Efficiency in Consensus-Based Decision-Making by Darcy K. Leach “Plan … Read More
This research report from the United Kingdom shows that the arrival of millennials in the workplace is not a threat to the employee owned business model. On the contrary, employee ownership works well to meet the aspirations of millennials, as it does for other generations. The ability of the employee ownership model to harness the … Read More
Last May, we introduced you to a new effort aimed at spreading the word about employee ownership at local and regional levels throughout the country. Building on pioneering efforts in Ohio and Vermont, the idea of proliferating state centers throughout the U. S. was initiated by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)…
This article evaluates worker-owned and unionized worker-owned cooperatives as alternatives to the conventional corporate structures for businesses in the United States. With their focus on democratic governance and shared ownership, worker-owned cooperatives offer an antidote to the extreme inequality of income and deterioration of working conditions that workers are experiencing. These are inequities for which … Read More
The authors offer a bipartisan exploration of employee ownership, its history, and the simple, common sense policies to help this proven wealth building approach grow exponentially.
This paper by Jared Bernstein shows that employee ownership appears to have a small equalizing impact on wealth and wage distributions.
The opportunity to convert businesses to worker cooperatives is increasingly becoming recognized as a strategy for strengthening our local economies. The need—and opportunity—for lenders and other capital providers to participate in these sales transactions is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. But only a handful of lenders in the U.S. specialize in lending … Read More
Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited (KTDAL) follows a unique model under which small tea farmers are shareholders. The KTDAL business model, which has made small farming viable, can be replicated to address some of the basic issues and challenges facing the developing world, which has millions of small farmers. However, the model has been facing tough challenges of late. Amidst this uncertainty, some farmers have called for abandoning KTDAL…
The Berrett-Koehler (BK) case highlights the efforts of a competitively successful, mission-driven, socially responsible publishing company to preserve its values, culture and practices while ensuring continued future success. The case provides an opportunity to cover corporate governance topics such as: ownership structures, shareholder relations, CEO and organizational succession planning, and board roles and responsibilities.
By taking the great example of regional ESOP promotion pioneers, engaging the University of California in the effort and working to engage other educational institutions as well as leaders in business and the local employee ownership community, we believe that it will be very possible to build strong regional support for the idea that communities ought to be the most active supporters of employee ownership…
Ultimately, the success of your venture will be determined not by your efforts alone but by the performance of the cast of people — employees, partners, or associates — that you assemble. So, if there is a strategy that can help you get more out of the people on whom you depend and also boost your organizational horsepower, you owe it to yourself to take a serious look. A policy of sharing equity with employees that is designed and used wisely can be just that strategy.
How does a business go about transitioning —“converting”— to a worker-owned cooperative? This report provides illustrations with case studies of businesses that have converted and highlights key lessons from those companies’ experiences. The report categorizes conversions into four types: Type I: Owner sells to existing employees with the intention of remaining with the company; Type … Read More
In today’s economy, some employees live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to save for a rainy day, let alone retirement. However, an increasingly utilized business model may yield part of the solution. Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are a promising alternative to traditional business models…