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Find a selection of recent policy and issue reports about employee ownership, some published by the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations, and others published by other centers and organizations, below.



Does Employee Ownership Improve Performance? Employee Ownership Generally Increases Firm Performance and Worker Outcomes

Douglas Kruse | May, 2022

Employee ownership has attracted growing attention for its potential to improve economic outcomes for companies, workers, and the economy in general, and help reduce inequality. Over 100 studies across many countries indicate that employee ownership is generally linked to better productivity, pay, job stability, and firm survival—though the effects are dispersed and causation is difficult … Read More

Understanding the Opportunities for Employee Ownership Among Minority Veteran-Owned Businesses

Kyra Sutton, Oyindamola Daramola, William Castellano | December, 2021

The United States business sector is dominated by small businesses that create new jobs at a rate considered faster than that of their larger competitors. Remarkably, military veterans own nearly 13 percent of small businesses. However, only eight percent of all veteran-owned firms are minority owned. The low percentage of minority-owned veteran businesses is perplexing … Read More

Shifting Power, Meeting the Moment: Worker Ownership as a Strategy Tool for the Labor Movement

Camille Kerr, Ra Criscitiello, Sanjay Pinto | December, 2021

This primer focuses on one set of tools the labor movement can utilize to build power, expand wealth, and deepen member engagement in the years ahead: worker ownership. It explores: How Unions and Worker Ownership Work Together How Worker Ownership Can Build Power for Workers The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Overcoming Challenges Looking … Read More

Race and Gender Wealth Equity and the Role of Employee Share Ownership

Douglas Kruse, Jenny Weissbourd, Joseph Blasi, Joyce Klein, Julian McKinley, Maureen Conway, Melissa Hoover, Todd Leverette, Yoorie Chang, Zen Trenholm | April, 2021

Even before the pandemic, many workers struggled to build wealth. Divisions between men and women, and between white households and households of color, are particularly striking. The pandemic has exacerbated and heightened awareness of these inequities, and there is a mounting sense of urgency to find practical solutions. Increasing participation in business ownership can help … Read More

Why Aren’t There More? Assessing Barriers to ESOP Creation

Jared Bernstein | January, 2021

This study by Jared Bernstein looks at why there are not more ESOPs and considers how to address potential barriers to entry. Drawing on a survey of 250 non-ESOP business owners and leaders, as well as interviews with business owners of employee-owned companies, it argues that education and awareness about the ESOP structure is key.

Opportunity Knocking: Impact Capital as the Transformative Agent to Take Employee Ownership to Scale

Jessica Rose, Karen Kahn, Marjorie Kelly, Michelle Camou, Sarah Stranahan | January, 2021

This paper proposes that impact investors and other capital providers could catalyze employee ownership buyouts. Impact capital could become the lever used to redirect wealth into the hands of working Americans, creating a more just and equitable economy that is more resilient against future shocks. Investments in employee ownership buyouts could offer attractive midrange returns, … Read More

Policy Strategies to Build a More Inclusive Economy with Cooperatives

Brett Theodos, Corianne Payton Scally, Leiha Edmonds | October, 2020

This report describes the role cooperatives can play in building healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities, and explains how to advance that work through federal, state, and local policy. The policy objectives presented are intended not to simply grow the field of cooperatives, but to enhance the work of cooperatives that address economic and racial disparities … Read More

Employee-Owned Firms in the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Majority-Owned ESOP & Other Companies Have Responded to the Covid-19 Health and Economic Crises

October, 2020

This significant new study shows that majority employee-owned companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are outperforming non-employee owned companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in the areas of job retention, pay, benefits, and workplace health safety. The study reveals that ESOPs have been more proactive about ensuring the safety of employees during the pandemic and … Read More

Having a Stake: Evidence and Implications for Broad-based Employee Stock Ownership and Profit Sharing

Douglas Kruse, Joseph Blasi, Richard B. Freeman | December, 2019

At the center of the ongoing debate about the causes and cures of inequality in America today is the vast difference in wealth between owners and workers. As many have noted, that gap was not nearly as large in the middle of the twentieth century as it has become in the first two decades of the 21st century, where owners and other executives make many multiples of what workers make – largely through grants of stock in lieu of salary.

The Case for Employee Ownership

Hilary Abell | May, 2020

The case for employee ownership is undisputed. As philanthropists and government leaders grapple with how to address both long-entrenched and newly-emerging forms of economic insecurity, there is no better time to look to effective but lesser-known solutions, such as employee ownership. Even before the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19, income and wealth inequality and downward economic mobility for frontline workers were truths so obvious that one could visually observe them in most communities. Now, more than ever, we need solutions that create economic resiliency for workers and local economies.

2019 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report

Tim Palmer | January, 2020

The 2019 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector is a report on worker-owned business in the United States. This report, a co-production of Democracy at Work Institute and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, draws upon the latest developments in the field. It includes an updated map of metro areas home to concentrations of worker … Read More

Mission-Led Employee-Owned Firms: The Best of the Best

Marjorie Kelly, Sarah Stranahan | January, 2019

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

Impact Investing and Employee Ownership

Mary Ann Beyster | May, 2017

The benefits of employee ownership as a strategy for achieving broad-based prosperity are well documented—but the growing field of impact investing has yet to fully recognize the key opportunity employee ownership presents for tackling economic inequality. In this Fifty by Fifty research brief, Mary Ann Beyster explores the existing landscape of employee ownership opportunities for … Read More

The Lending Opportunity Generation: FAQs and Case Studies For Investing In Businesses Converting To Worker Ownership

Alison Lingane, Camille Kerr, Dorian Gregory | January, 2016

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