Immigrant Worker Owned Cooperatives: A User’s Manual
This booklet provides a “users’ manual” for workers, especially immigrant workers, and their advocates, for organizing a worker-owned cooperative as a worker empowerment strategy.
How Economic Democracy Impacts Workers, Firms, and Communities
This paper presents findings from a national survey of 1,147 workers in worker cooperatives and follow up interviews with 15 participants conducted in 2017.
Race and Gender Wealth Equity and the Role of Employee Share Ownership
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
Becoming Employee Owned: A Small Business Toolkit Website
Becoming Employee Owned is an initiative of the Democracy at Work Institute, a movement-based think-and-do tank supporting worker cooperatives to grow to a scale that creates meaningful change in the economy. The website includes resources for small businesses and company profiles.
Who Should Own Your Business After You? A Guide for Business Owners
This booklet helps business owners evaluate employee ownership. Thousands of business owners have decided that employee ownership is the best way to preserve the job security of their workforces and protect the character of their companies while providing them and their families fair value. In “Who Should Own Your Business After You?,” several of them … Read More
2019 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report
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
Becoming Employee-Owned: A Small Business Toolkit for Transitioning to Employee Ownership
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
The Lending Opportunity Generation: FAQs and Case Studies For Investing In Businesses Converting To Worker Ownership
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