Employee Ownership Blog

In 1989, the Commission of the European Communities created a panel to report on the "Promotion of Employee Participation in Profits and Enterprise Results." The so-called PEPPER Report, issued in 1992, urged member states to adopt legislation and regulations to encourage profit sharing and emplo

The 2006 tax bill recently passed by Congress contains a provision allowing individuals who paid the alternative minimum tax (AMT) on the exercise of stock options to take a tax credit of 20% (or, if the original credit is less than $25,000, $5,000 or the full amount of the credit, whichever is l

Google will allow employees to sell their vested stock options through an arrangement with Morgan Stanley. Only non-executive employees will be given this choice (Google provides equity broadly to employees), and only shares issued since the IPO will be eligible.

On March 6, 2007, WorldBlu will announce the first annual WorldBlu List of Most Democratic Workplaces in conjunction with the celebration of Democracy in the Workplace Day.

Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) gained recognition this year for heading the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

New data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that just 56.8% of working adults between ages 21 and 64 are eligible for a retirement plan and only 45.1% actually participate in a plan.

In the most comprehensive study available on employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs), the research firm Equilar has found that 21.4% of the Russell 3000 companies (the largest 3,000 public companies) with ESPPs conform to the new "safe harbor" accounting rules that allow companies that offer no loo

The NCEO is currently working on a project to be released in 2007 that will provide data on the percentages of ESOP-only and combined 401(k)/ESOP plans in the 900 largest public companies.

An NCEO staffer notes that at his gym, there is a suggestion box prominently by the door. The box has a note on it (and has for some time) saying that suggestions placed in the box will not be reviewed.

The recent spate of "stock drop" cases has focused mostly on 401(k) plans, but some of the companies had ESOPs as well. Courts have generally adopted the Moench v. Robertson doctrine that investments in company stock can be presumed to be prudent unless the company is in serious difficulty.

According to a report from Pearl Meyer & Partners based on a study of public stock filings, the largest 200 U.S. companies have reduced the use of options to a median overhang of 12.9% of outstanding shares.

Back in the 1950s, Louis Kelso, the creator of the modern ESOP, argued that the share of economic growth ordinary workers would capture from their labor would shrink over the next decades, while returns to capital would far outpace economic growth. Economists said Kelso was deluded.