Employees Want Ownership

Data reveals a growing desire among Americans to work for firms owned and operated by employees

In Brief: Research shows a growing desire among employees for equity in their organizations. 

The Report: Data collected from the General Social Survey and published by UC Berkeley found that employees overwhelmingly prefer to work for companies where employees own stock and appoint management. When asked to choose between three options - ownership by a third party, ownership by employees, and ownership by the government – almost 72% of respondents answered that they would prefer to work for a company owned and operated by employees. 

Why It Matters: The employee ownership movement has recently been gaining traction. In the last few months legislation supporting transitions to employee ownership was passed in Washington state and New Jersey, while at the federal level a bipartisan bill encouraging employee-owned businesses was just proposed last week (check out EO+WD’s rundown of the bill here). The support of politicians and business owners is critical to growing the number of employee-owned companies, but it is also crucial that the move is supported by employees. If employers know that forms of employee ownership such as ESOPs and EOTs are desired and supported by their staff, they will be more likely to take advantage of tax breaks or other legislated incentives and switch the employee ownership. 

Also: Employees aren’t the only ones who support increased equity in ownership. The same survey found almost 38% of consumers would be more likely to buy from an employee- owned company. 

Go Deeper: Check out the original article here. 

Image Credit: Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash