Employee Ownership Blog

Loren Rodgers

February 13, 2020

The State of Worker Cooperatives 2019

On January 29, the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the Democracy at Work Institute released their annual report on the state of worker cooperatives (registration required) in the U.S. The report notes that there are 465 known worker cooperatives, which is a slight increase from the 450 known cooperatives in the 2017 report. Worker cooperatives employ 6,454 people and generate annual revenue of approximately $505 million. They're situated throughout the country, with concentrations in the San Francisco Bay Area, the corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston, and Puerto Rico.

Loren Rodgers

February 11, 2020

House Committee Holds Hearings on Employee Ownership in Small Businesses

On February 12, the House Committee on Small Business will hold a hearing titled "Challenges and Benefits of Employee-Owned Small Businesses." The hearing, which will begin at 11:30 am, will be live-streamed. [Update on February 12: that link now goes to a committee page that includes a link to a video recording of the hearing.]

Loren Rodgers

January 22, 2020

Center for American Progress Issues Report Recommending State Employee Ownership Efforts

The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, issued a report on January 20 titled Building Workers’ Wealth in Cities and States. The Center worked with the Hillary Clinton campaign on its economic policy.

NCEO

January 21, 2020

The NCEO Is Hiring! We Posted a Job for Our First-Ever Controller

The NCEO exists to make employee ownership thrive, and our work—as measured by revenue—has more than doubled in the last decade. That growth means it is time for us to hire a controller. We've posted a job description that we're hoping to fill by early March.

Loren Rodgers

January 20, 2020

Presidential Candidate Deval Patrick Endorses Employee Ownership

Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts and the latest entrant into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, released his Opportunity Agenda on January 16. In it, he proposed several steps to promote employee ownership:

Corey Rosen

January 15, 2020

Supreme Court Remands Stock Drop Case to Consider Insider Information Issues

In Jander v. Retirement Plans Committee of IBM (2nd Cir. Dec. 10, 2018), the Second Circuit ruled that the Dudenhoeffer rule that "[t]o state a claim for breach of the duty of prudence on the basis of inside information, a plaintiff must plausibly allege an alternative action that the defendant could have taken that would have been consistent with the securities laws and that a prudent fiduciary in the same circumstances would not have viewed as more likely to harm the fund than to help it" raised conflicting standards. The court ruled that the plaintiffs in a case involving stock in IBM’s 401(k) plan had convincingly argued that early disclosure and correction of financial issues raised about accounting and other irregularities at its microelectronics division (which was ultimately sold) could have done more good than harm. The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court.

Loren Rodgers

January 15, 2020

NCEO Board Election Closes on January 17

Over 300 people have voted in the election for the NCEO's board of directors, and balloting will close this Friday, January 17, at 5 pm Pacific time.

Loren Rodgers

January 02, 2020

NCEO Board Election: Ballots Open on January 7

Members in good standing of the NCEO will receive an email on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, announcing the board elections. The email will include a link to a confidential electronic ballot. Directors will be selected through this election and appointment by existing board members for the upcoming board term, which runs from April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2023. Balloting will end on January 17.

Corey Rosen

January 02, 2020

IRS Rules That Typical ESOP Floor Price Protection Plans Are Taxable

In General Legal Advice Memo 2019-03, the IRS ruled that payments from a company to a former employee under an ESOP price protection plan are immediately taxable if made directly to the employee, but not if the employer makes a special "qualified non-elective contribution" to the plan that is allocated to the former employee’s account and then distributed as part of the ultimate account distribution. Once those funds are distributed, they would be taxed under normal distribution rules.

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