Employee Ownership Blog

Matthew Licina

Funding Halted for WA Employee Ownership Program

Updated May 30, 2025. The author would like to thank Jack Moriarty of Lafayette Square Institute for his input.

Following speculation and legislative hearings featuring testimony from interested parties, the state of Washington has enacted changes to its employee ownership program. Signed into law on May 19 by Governor Bob Ferguson (D), HB 2047 will eliminate funding for the employee ownership program, initially launched in 2023, and will also sunset the associated tax credit for new applications after June 30, 2025.

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Scott Rodrick

DOL Secretary Praises ESOPs and Promises Support

In a keynote address today to the ESOP Association, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer expressed her support of ESOPs. “I want you to know that the Trump administration recognizes the real transformative power of employee stock ownership plans.” Referring to complaints by some in the ESOP community regarding how the Department of Labor (DOL) has conducted its regulatory oversight of ESOPs, she commented that “we’re here to undo the culture of harassment. . . . I understand how poor regulation and misguided agency agendas can directly impact business success. . . . It is my mission to support you, not regulate you into oblivion.”

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Eva Lianos

Announcing the 2025 NCEO Forum Keynote Speaker, Guy Raz

Guy Raz_HeadshotThe National Center for Employee Ownership is thrilled to announce that renowned journalist, podcast host, and bestselling author Guy Raz will deliver the keynote address at the 2025 NCEO Forum at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. As the author of How I Built This, Raz brings a wealth of knowledge on entrepreneurship, innovation, and business growth that perfectly aligns with the employee ownership community's vision. Guy Raz has interviewed hundreds of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and innovators, documenting their triumphs, failures, and pivotal moments that transformed their businesses. His unique ability to extract profound insights from these stories has earned him international acclaim and a devoted following. What makes Raz's approach particularly relevant to the employee ownership community is his focus on the human elements of business success—resilience, collaboration, shared purpose, and long-term thinking—values that are fundamental to thriving employee-owned companies.

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Timothy Garbinsky

Oregon Bill Would Give ESOPs Public Procurement Preference

A new bill in the Oregon state legislature would give employee-owned businesses a purchasing preference for public contracting. HB 3646, which is sponsored by Representative Thủy Trần (D), alongside Representatives Andersen (D), Marsh (D) and Neron (D), and Senators Patterson (D), Sollman (D), and Weber (R), adds entities in which employees own at least 50% of the business (either directly or through an ESOP) to the list of preferred sources for public contracts, allowing them to receive the same preference currently given to benefit companies. This permits state agencies to select their bids even if they cost up to 5% more than the lowest bid from a non-preferred business. A work session for the bill is currently on the agenda of the May 13 meeting of the Oregon Senate Committee on Labor and Business.

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Corey Rosen

NCEO Paper Compares Employee Ownership Models in Five Countries

A new NCEO paper, Expanding Employee Ownership: Models in the US, UK, Canada, France, and Slovenia (PDF; also see the embedded version below), explores the five leading models for trust-based employee ownership. Research and experience show that holding employee ownership in a trust, rather than individually owning shares, tends to be the most sustainable form of employee ownership. Companies generally need tax or other incentives to create and fund the plans for employee ownership to grow. Also, employee ownership is more likely to be widely adopted in forms that are funded in whole or in part by the company, rather than just by employees. These five models are the only legislatively supported models that combine all these features.

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Corey Rosen

American Ownership and Resilience Act Introduced in Congress

Bill relaunches last Congress’s Employee Equity Investment Act under Commerce Department

Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) (press release) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) and U.S. Representatives Blake Moore (R-UT) and Lori Trahan (D-MA) have introduced the American Ownership and Resilience Act (Senate and House bill PDFs), a relaunch of the Employee Equity Investment Act of 2023 (EEIA) introduced in the last Congress. The legislation is cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Todd Young (R-IN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Peter Welch (D-VT). In the House, it is cosponsored by Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-SD) (press release) and Bill Foster (D-IL). It has not yet been assigned a bill number.

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