Employee Ownership Blog

Social science research on employee ownership has traditionally been rare, but Cornell University Press's upcoming release of Employee Ownership and Shared Capitalism is one more sign of an increased level of interest.

The June 27, 2011, issue of The Nation featured 13 articles about the shape and future of capitalism, several of which focus on employee ownership. Joseph Blasi, Douglas Kruse, and Richard Freeman make the case for broad-based incentive programs, including employee ownership.

Citing possible fiduciary and tax concerns with floor-price protection in ESOP companies, William K. Bortz, associate benefits tax counsel at the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy, said that the practice raised unanswered questions.

How do stock options affect employee behavior?

ITAGroup, an ESOP company featured as a case study in the NCEO's November-December 2006 newsletter, released a new public branding with the theme "driven by loyalty." The company, which helps companies maximize the value of loyalty in customers, sales and channel partners, and employees, has a 99

ESOP-owned Brookshire Brothers, a retail food and pharmacy in Lufkin, Texas, sponsored a charity golf venture that raised $100,000 for nonprofit organizations in Angelina County, Texas.

Pam Chernoff, who has worked for the NCEO developing equity compensation programs since 2003, has taken a new position at the Certified Equity Professional Institute (CEPI). One of her main projects at the NCEO was the prep course for the CEP exam.

At our 2011 annual conference on employee ownership in April, Richard Freeman of Harvard University and Joseph Blasi of Rutgers presented new research on employee stock plans done with their colleague Doug Kruse of Rutgers.

The European Federation of Employee Share Ownership released its most recent report on the state of employee ownership in the European Union, the Economic Survey of Employee Ownership in European

South Africa's current Black Economic Empowerment program provides favored government contracting to companies that meet rules for expanding ownership to blacks.

Writing in the Orlando Sentinel, Beth Kassab examines why Publix Super Markets, the nation's largest ESOP company, pays its CEO Ed Crenshaw less

Mark R. Lomele, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Recology, located in San Francisco, California, has been elected to serve as the chair of the ESOP Association, a national trade association for companies with ESOPs.