Employee Ownership, ESOPs, Wealth, & Wages
This paper by Jared Bernstein shows that employee ownership appears to have a small equalizing impact on wealth and wage distributions.
The Wealthy and Powerful Discover Inequality
Even the rich are admitting that inequality is bad for business…
ESOP and 401(k) Coordination Tips in a Post-Disclosure World
After several postponements, 401(k) fee disclosure was mandated by the Department of Labor (DOL) before July 1st of 2012. So what kind of impact have we seen in the ESOP world? Has it been successful in helping plan sponsors and participants understand the costs of their 401(k) plans?
Can Employee-Owned Companies Reboot the Economy?
If owners of businesses are reaping the rewards of economic growth at the expense of workers, then why not just try to increase the number of workers who also own a piece of the firms that employ them?
The End of Illth: In Search of an Economy That Won’t Kill Us
In the wake of the 2010 Massey mining disaster in West Virginia, the author asks whether employee ownership could improve workplace safety, and how such cooperatives might serve as a model for an alternative form of capitalism based on the sustainable use of natural and human resources.
Start-ups and Compensating Employees with Equity
Before running off and launching a start-up business, one of the most important things an entrepreneur must think through is how to best handle equity in the company…
Note on Motivation
This note discusses the complex topic of motivation, including the issue of contingent compensation…
Employee Stock Ownership Plans and Their Effect on Productivity: The Case of Huawei
This case study describes Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, which heavily utilizes ESOP ownership, and applies Huawei’s results to describe ESOPs as a powerful tool for achieving corporate efficiency and growth.
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.
Using Ownership Incentives in China
Roy Weber met Cheng Wang, a business consultant and Chinese entrepreneur, at Cheng’s hotel bar in Silicon Valley. Although Roy was slightly familiar with Chinese business practices, he welcomed more advice from a Chinese national. Could Roy transplant Silicon Valley’s model of employee ownership to China, and what would this process entail for a technology startup?
Employees Matter: Maximizing Company Value Through Workforce Engagement
Increasing numbers of businesses view their employees not as a mere cost but as invaluable contributors for business success. These firms are implementing strategies to fully engage employees at all levels. The Employees Matter report identifies sixteen fast growing entrepreneurial firms that employ employee ownership and engagement strategies which they perceive as directly linked with improved business performance. Eight other notable companies with key lessons to share are included as sidebar profiles.
Inclusive Capitalism for the American Workforce: Reaping the Rewards of Economic Growth through Broad-based Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing
What can be done to reverse the economic disparity in our nation and restore prosperity for all? This paper lays out a policy reform that will help restore the link between economic growth and the earnings of workers so that the recovery re-establishes a prosperous middle class. The reform encourages firms to develop broad-based incentive compensation systems that link employee earnings to the performance of the firm. This reform would give employees access to the capital-related earnings of their companies comparable to that of the senior executives who run these firms.
Elizabeth Jacobs: Price-Earnings Ratios and Employee Stock Option Grants
Elizabeth had a number of concerns related to the heavy use of employee stock options as incentives and employee compensation in the high-technology sector…
Jimmy Fu and Moog, Inc.: Understanding Shareholders’ Equity
The case introduces students to the concepts of employee stock options, stock-splits and buybacks, multiple share classes, and the basics of equity investment and diversification.
Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division
CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc.
Owners as Stewards: What Determines Employee Ownership of Institutional Investment Management Firms?
We examine how employee ownership is used to solve the agency problem between institutional investment management firms and employees.
Incentives, Targeting and Firm Performance: An Analysis of Non-Executive Stock Options
We examine whether options granted to non-executive employees affect the performance of the firm by exploring the link between broad-based option plans, option portfolio implied incentives, and firm operating performance.
From Colleagues to Owners: Transferring Ownership To Employees
Based on ten case studies, the report explains what motivated a highly diverse mix of businesses to consider employee ownership as a succession or start up route.
Broad-Based Employee Share Ownership in Australian Listed Companies: Survey Report
The project subjects the existing regulatory regime for employee share ownership plans in Australia – in tax, corporate and labour law – to technical and empirical scrutiny. This research report presents findings from a survey of employee share ownership practice in ASXlisted companies.
Employee Share Ownership Plans: A Review
This paper reviews the main strands of research on employee share ownership over the last forty years.
Making Employee Ownership Work: A Benchmark Guide
‘Making employee ownership work’ is a new guide from the Employee Ownership Association and co-ownership advisers the Baxi Partnership, based on a survey of 25 EOA member companies including John Lewis, Unipart, Arup and Mott MacDonald.
John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is one of the UK’s most profitable retailers – sales grew by 6.3% and pre-tax profit by 18.7% in the year to 27 January 2008. Its success owes much to the co-ownership principles of its founder, John Spedan Lewis, who handed over control and ownership in two trust settlements in the last century.
What is an ESOP?
What is an ESOP? Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs, were designed as a way to put ownership into the hands of American workers.
Employee Financial Participation for Corporate Governance and Social Dialogue
This is a collection of cases about the following companies: John Lewis Partnership, IsBank, Banca Popolare Milano, Handelsbanken, Dexia, Total, Aerlingus, Kardemir, Tullis Russell, Saf Tehnika, Eircom, and Enel.
Five Key Errors in Designing Equity Compensation Plans in Closely Held Companies
I have had dozens of conversations with business owners who want to share equity with some or all employees over the past several years.