Employee Ownership Blog

Madelyn Hammack

How the National Employee-Owner Summit Builds on Midwest ESOP Culture

As a lifelong denizen of the Midwest, I can personally attest to the rich culture of employee ownership in the area. From the J&R Schugel trucks I see along my drive into downtown Chicago to the Woodman’s Food Market in my very own backyard, it’s clear that employee ownership is thriving across the Heartland. Alongside the employee-owned companies themselves, the region is also home to several nonprofit organizations that are doing the necessary work to further the spread of employee ownership, such as the Illinois Center for Employee Ownership (ILCEO) and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC). Through their events and resources, these organizations are ensuring that everyone from EO-curious business owners to employee-owners themselves can connect with peers and receive valuable education about employee ownership models.

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Corey Rosen

Once Again, the SBA's ESOP Loan Program Becomes Dysfunctional

The first piece of legislation I wrote on ESOPs as a Congressional staffer was the Small Business Employee Ownership Act. It became law in 1980. The bill was designed to address the SBA's refusal to make loans to ESOP trusts. At the time, loans often went directly to the ESOP trust rather than first to the company, which would then reloan it to the ESOP. The new law clarified that the SBA could make a loan directly to the ESOP trust. Shortly after that, I started the NCEO. After a couple of years, the SBA still had not issued guidance on how the law would be implemented. I set up a meeting with SBA officials to discuss the issue. They told me the law did not mean what I thought. I explained that I actually wrote the law, but they were not persuaded. The law also directed them to run an outreach program, but they didn't want to do that either. 

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John Case

The Surprising History of Democratic Management a Century Ago

Many employee-owned companies these days are experimenting with different forms of participative management, such as systematic suggestion procedures, quality circles, and self-managing teams. Most of these initiatives work well, but they’re limited in scope. Participants rarely address issues of business strategy or financial priorities. They don’t negotiate pay or benefits; indeed, allowing such discussions would expose the company to legal challenges under the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act. 

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NCEO Events & Webinars

Navigating ESOP to ESOP Mergers: What Every Employee-Owned Company Should Know

Mergers and acquisitions have become an increasingly common growth strategy for ESOP companies, and a recent NCEO webinar with Hillary Hughes and Will Hobby of Prairie Capital Advisors offered a timely look at one particular path: the ESOP to ESOP merger. Their session made clear that this strategy is gaining traction, with polling during the webinar showing that roughly two thirds of attendees have already seriously evaluated acquiring another company.

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Corey Rosen

Employee Ownership Companies Make Time Magazine’s Best Private Companies List

Employee ownership figures prominently in Time magazine’s brand-new list of America's Best Private Companies of 2026. Fourteen of the top 100 companies are employee-owned; 13 are partially or entirely ESOP-owned, and 1 company is partly owned through an employee ownership trust. The list includes 500 companies; we looked at the top 100. Time partnered with Statista to “evaluate and rank the most prominent firms in the country based on employee satisfaction, financial performance, and sustainability transparency. Both public companies and private companies that report their financial and sustainability data were considered.” Details on the methodology can be found here.

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Corey Rosen

Cassidy and Sanders Add Amendment to Fund DOL Employee Ownership Initiative

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) added an amendment (PDF) to S. 3333, the Emergency Savings Enhancement Act of 2025, that would dramatically increase funding for the Employee Ownership Initiative in the US Department of Labor (DOL). The initiative is part of the WORK Act, which was incorporated into the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. The WORK Act established the Employee Ownership Initiative in the DOL to serve as a clearinghouse for information on employee ownership and, more importantly, provide funding for state employee ownership outreach and education programs. While the WORK Act authorized funds for the program, they were never appropriated. In 2025, the DOL administratively set aside $2 million for the program. 

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Scott Rodrick

New Bill Would Largely Remove Limits on ESOP Contributions and Allocations

Rep. Perry Scott (R-PA) introduced the Employee Ownership Fairness Act of 2026 in the House on July 20. The bill is a companion to the Employee Ownership Fairness Act of 2025, introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in the Senate on May 13, 2025, and discussed on this blog at that time. The bills would largely remove limits on ESOP contributions and allocations.

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NCEO Events & Webinars

The Repurchase Obligation Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Insights from the NCEO June Community Conversation

When ESOP practitioners gather to talk honestly about the repurchase obligation, one of the first things worth reframing is the language itself. "Obligation" sounds like a burden, but as NCEO Peer Network Manager Kimberly McCourtney put it at the opening of the June Community Conversation, the repurchase obligation is a feature of your ESOP plan, not a bug. NCEO research shows that ESOP companies distributed $166 billion in 2023 alone. A growing repurchase obligation is, more often than not, a sign of a thriving company and a well-run plan.

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