Main Street Employee Ownership Act Signed into Law

On August 13, the Main Street Employee Ownership Act became the law of the land when President Trump signed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (the text is available as web page or PDF; see section 862). The pro-employee ownership provisions included in the defense bill encourage the creation of ESOPs and worker cooperatives by facilitating transactions via loans supported by the Small Business Administration. It also directs the SBA's outreach infrastructure to encourage business owners to consider employee ownership. For more information, see our June 15 update.

This legislation is the most significant change in employee ownership law since the series of laws that allowed ESOPs to be shareholders of S corporations in the late 90s and early 2000s.