Employee Ownership Blog

Nancy Wiefek

New NCEO Research Shows the Benefits of Being an ESOP in the Food Industry

The NCEO just completed a large grant-funded project examining whether and how employee ownership affected companies and employees in the U.S. food system during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project involved commissioning a national polling firm to collect original survey data from executives at ESOP and non-ESOP-owned companies. It speaks to important issues of workforce retention, business competitiveness, and the retirement security crisis. Namely:

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Corey Rosen

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.”

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Corey Rosen

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.”

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Corey Rosen

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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Corey Rosen

House Bill Adds Tax Benefit for Sellers to ESOPs in S Corporations

On March 29, the House passed the SECURE 2.0 Act (H.R. 2954) by a vote of 414-5. The bill will now go to the Senate. The bill makes two minor improvements for ESOPs plus a number of other changes aimed at making it easier for employers and employees to assure retirement plans work more effectively. Some of these will affect ESOPs.

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Loren Rodgers

The New Chair of the NCEO's Board of Directors

Victor Aspengren has succeeded Mary Boettcher as the chair of the NCEO's board of directors as of today. Mary had been the chair of the NCEO's board of directors since 2019; as the chief steward of the organization's mission to help employee ownership thrive, Mary says, " I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as chair of this extraordinary organization for the past three years. What a tumultuous time period for any organization, and none displayed more strength, determination, and agility than the NCEO. NCEO staff continues to deliver outstanding critical educational resources and research to support our employee ownership community and their passion to serve and grow employee ownership is ever-present. I look forward to continuing to serve as immediate past chair on the board of directors for the next two years!"

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Corey Rosen

Proposed DOL Regulations on Exempt Transactions Raise ESOP Community Concerns

On March 8, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new rules for prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) filings, rules that have raised concerns in the ESOP community. These filings are relatively rare, with about 20 per year. While ESOPs are statutorily exempt from having to make these filings, some ESOP professionals are concerned the DOL might subsequently extend the concepts in the proposal to ESOPs.

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