The National Center for Employee Ownership is offering two new certifications: Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Employee-Owned Business Enterprise (SEDEOBE) and Minority Employee-Owned Business Enterprise (MEOBE). The certifications are currently offered under preliminary standards that accommodate employee ownership via an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). These standards are public as of April 15, 2025, and the NCEO expects to expand them in the coming months. We expect to accommodate worker cooperatives and to begin issuing the Women Employee-Owned Business Enterprises (WEOBE) certification, and we expect more expansion to follow.
Employee ownership provides workers in every demographic category of the US workforce an opportunity to build economic well-being via an ownership stake in the companies where they work. Research demonstrates that employee ownership builds household wealth for working-class people and that this impact applies across ethnicity, gender, education level, and other demographic groups. (See the NCEO research page and this video from the employee-owned company Lewis Services).