Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen

Corey Rosen

June 16, 2022

Can ESOPs Help Recreate Social Trust in America?

America is facing a crisis of social trust. Measure after measure confirms we increasingly don’t trust our institutions or each other. There are a lot of reasons for this, including people being less involved in group activities, the rise of the internet, cable news, and growing economic insecurity. This is all made worse by the fact that a tiny percentage of the population owns most of America, creating a sense among all sides that the system is just unfair.

Corey Rosen

June 06, 2022

Update: New York Passes Bill to Allow Engineering, Architecture, and Land Survey Firms to Be Majority ESOP-Owned

Following a 63-0 vote in the New York Senate, the New York State Assembly passed S. 5261 with a 146-1 vote. The bill would allow majority-owned ESOPs to qualify under New York corporate practice rules for engineering, architectural, landscape architectural, or land survey firms if 75% or more of the company’s voting trustees or ESOP plan committee (often the board of directors) are members of the profession. The bill now heads to the Governor’s desk for signature.

Corey Rosen

June 01, 2022

Update: California Employee Ownership Bill Passes Senate Unanimously

Bill now moves to Assembly

California Senate Bill 1407, the Expanding Employee Ownership Act, has passed without dissent in the California Senate. As discussed in a previous post, this bill, if it becomes law, would be the most significant step forward by a state yet in promoting employee ownership. Introduced by Senator Josh Becker, the bill would provide outreach funding, access to transaction financing, and financial support for technical assistance for conversions to employee ownership. While the bill appears to have no opposition and has been endorsed by a wide variety of groups, letters to Assembly members in support of the bill would help move it forward. California legislation often serves as a model for other states, so its impact could well go beyond the state.

Corey Rosen

May 31, 2022

Bipartisan Senate Draft of New Bill Moves WORK Act Closer to Passage

The bill would create a major federal program to provide funding and support for state-level outreach and technical assistance for employee ownership

Corey Rosen

May 16, 2022

EY Study Shows ESOP Participants Fare Much Better

A new study, “Contribution of S ESOPs to Participants’ Retirement Security and Employee-Owner Benefits,” prepared for the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA) by EY (formerly Ernst & Young), finds that:

Corey Rosen

May 16, 2022

Kaiser Permanente to Encourage Vendors to Become Employee-Owned

Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest HMOs, announced that it will be encouraging its 37,000 vendors to become employee-owned. The organization said that its “Business Resiliency through Employee Ownership” program “aims to educate the health system's suppliers about employee ownership and support those firms in transitioning to such a model, in which the majority of a company's shares are owned by employees.”

Corey Rosen

May 02, 2022

Maine Law Encourages Employee Ownership in Renewable Energy Sector

A new law in Maine, LD 1969, directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to require that any renewable energy project in the state receiving $50,000 or more in state funding to meet certain labor standards, including paying prevailing wages. The law also provides that in soliciting bids for state support for renewable energy projects, the Public Utilities Commission should “consider whether a majority of the individuals working on an assisted project are members of an entity that is employee-owned, including but not limited to an entity that offers employee stock ownership plans.”

Corey Rosen

April 08, 2022

House Committee Passes Bill to Fund State EO Outreach Programs

For an update on this bill, see our May 31, 2022, blog post Bipartisan Senate Draft of New Bill Moves WORK Act Closer to Passage.

Corey Rosen

April 05, 2022

Ownership Works: A New Nonprofit Supporting Employee Ownership

Ownership Works is a new nonprofit funded by $50 million in donations from Pete Stavros, a partner at the investment firm KKR, and 60 other organizations. In an April 5 story on the launch, the Wall Street Journal reported that “among the founding partners are 19 private-equity firms, including Apollo Global Management Inc., Ares Management Corp., KKR & Co., Leonard Green & Partners LP, Silver Lake, TPG Inc., and Warburg Pincus LLC.” Others involved include United for Respect, which has led worker campaigns against private-equity-backed companies, Omidyar Network, and the Ford Foundation.

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