Employee Ownership Blog

Corey Rosen

Employee Ownership Stands Out in Great Place to Work's 100 Best Companies

The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® 2026 list compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute once again contains a number of companies that either have ESOPs or are directly 100% owned by most of their employees. One is 100% ESOP-owned, one is a 100% employee-owned mix of an ESOP and a stock purchase plan, three have minority ESOPs, and three are owned by stock purchase or partnership plans in which most employees participate.

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Corey Rosen

Judge Rules Releveraging an ESOP Is Not a Fiduciary Violation

Many mature ESOP companies use releveraging to help manage their repurchase obligations and ensure there are shares to allocate to new participants over time. Releveraging especially helps manage repurchase costs when the company’s share price increases quickly. In releveraging, ESOP companies borrow money to purchase shares, typically from former employees, and then allocate those shares over the life of the loan. This new debt can have a temporary impact on share value. Part of that impact is offset by the additional shares allocated to existing participants, but many companies create a floor price plan that protects at least more senior employees from a reduction in their stock value as a result of the additional debt.

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Maria Lianos

Why Your ESOP's Capital Plan Matters More Than You Think

In an NCEO webinar earlier this year, Capital Planning: Beyond the Basics, Prairie Capital Advisors' Nick Viner and Joseph Labetti walked through a framework for thinking about capital allocation in ESOP-owned companies. The session focused on a question that deserves more attention than it often receives: what is actually driving your company's stock price, and are you making intentional decisions about it? 

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Corey Rosen

New Opinion Poll Shows Broad Support for Employee Ownership

But the poll also found that few people know much about the idea

A new poll from Expanding ESOPs shows that a large majority of Americans support the idea of employee ownership, while very few oppose it. Support is slightly higher among Democrats than Republicans. Working with the Bipartisan Policy Coalition (BPC), Expanding ESOPs hired polling firms (Public Opinion Strategies and Impact Research) to poll 1,000 registered voters. 

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Matthew Licina

When Steward Ownership and Employee Ownership Meet: A Dialogue Between Two Traditions

As employee ownership trusts (EOTs) have grown in popularity in the US and abroad, the intersection and overlap between EOTs and steward ownership have become increasingly important. The post below presents a conversation between two EU-based figures, NCEO Fellow Graeme Nuttall and Maike Kauffmann of the Purpose Foundation, about the overlapping but distinct employee ownership and steward ownership models, and how it’s important to be clear when describing these separate but related initiatives.

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Maria Lianos

Why Your December 31, 2025, ESOP Valuation May Surprise You, and What to Do About It

In a recent NCEO webinar titled What's Driving Your ESOP Valuation?, Andy Manchir and Dan Roach of KSM walked through the forces shaping year-end 2025 ESOP valuations and what ESOP companies can do to better understand and anticipate their results. This blog post provides an overview of the presentation.

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Corey Rosen

New NCEO Paper Looks at How ESOP Companies Share Profits with Employees

Employees in companies with ESOPs share the rewards of work through ownership, but most ESOP companies also share some of their annual profits with employees. My new paper "How ESOP Companies Share Profits with Employees," found in the Culture and Communications section of our Document Library (NCEO member login required), explores the many approaches ESOP companies use to do this.

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Corey Rosen

Bipartisan Policy Council Report Urges More Support for Employee Ownership

In the new report A Nation at Risk to A Nation at Work: The Case for a National Talent Strategy, the Bipartisan Policy Council urges Congress and the administration to improve incentives for employee ownership. Founded in 2007, the council holds meetings and issues reports on a wide variety of topics. Its current co-chairs are former Massachusetts Democratic governor Deval Patrick and former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. The Council includes a variety of prominent former political leaders as well as thought leaders. 

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