Nancy Wiefek
Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen
Pro-Employee Ownership Legislation Passes the First Hurdle in the European Parliament
Thanks to Kosta Juri, director of operations at the Institute for Economic Democracy (IED), and Rachel Bachmann, head of strategic initiatives at IED, for helping draft this post.
Last week, the European Parliament (EP) plenary adopted (by 492 votes in favor, 144 against, and 28 abstentions) a resolution with recommendations to the European Commission to propose a harmonizing directive aimed at creating an EU-wide unified legal framework (the “28th Regime,” referring to an additional legal framework alongside those of the current 27 member states) for innovative companies.
Matthew Licina
The Annual Conference Isn’t Just for ESOPs: Here’s Why You Should Attend
The NCEO Annual Conference brings together over 2,300 leaders in the employee ownership community. While ESOPs make up a significant portion of our attendee base, this year’s conference in Milwaukee (April 6-9) features 46 sessions relevant to non-ESOP employee-ownership structures—nearly a third of the entire program.
Corey Rosen
DOL Removes ESOPs from National Enforcement Project List
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the US Department of Labor (DOL) announced today that it removed ESOPs from its national enforcement project list. ESOPs had been on that list since 2005 as one of five items on the list, which also included improper handling of various health plan issues, criminal abuse of defined contribution plans, plan investment conflicts, and benefit distribution violations.
Corey Rosen
Denmark Passes Law to Encourage Employee Ownership
Denmark has become the third European country to pass legislation to encourage employee ownership through a trust or similar collective arrangement, joining the UK (2014) and Slovenia (2025).
Scott Rodrick
S ESOP Companies Included in US Exemption from Global Minimum Tax
The Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA) reports that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced that a “side by side” arrangement will exempt all US companies from a new 15% tax on the global income of large multinational corporations. Senior US Treasury staff members have assured ESCA representatives that the US exemption will cover multinational US ESOP-owned S corporations, which otherwise would be subject to entity-level taxes.
Corey Rosen
OpenAI Sets Record for Employee Stock Compensation
The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI is paying employees more in stock compensation than any other tech startup in history. Based on data from Equilar, the Journal found that the total stock compensation averages $1.5 million per employee, more than seven times what Google disclosed when it went public in 2004.
Corey Rosen
Grand Rapids Becomes the First City to Provide Preferences for Employee-Owned Businesses
Grand Rapids, MI, has become the first city to provide purchasing preferences for employee-owned businesses (PDF). Businesses can be employee-owned through an ESOP, an employee ownership trust, or a worker cooperative and must be certified by a recognized third party, such as Certified Employee-Owned or the NCEO.
Corey Rosen
Two New Proposals in Congress to Promote Employee Ownership
Two new proposals to promote employee ownership have been introduced in Congress, the National Worker Cooperative Development and Support Act and the Empowering Small-Business Ownership Participation (ESOP) Act.