Main Street Employee Ownership Act Passes House

On May 8, the Main Street Employee Ownership Act (H. 5236) passed in the House of Representatives by a voice vote. The Senate version of the bill (S. 2786) is in the Senate Small Business committee. Like the House bill, the Senate bill has bipartisan support, and the lead sponsor, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been actively campaigning for it.

Joseph Blasi, the J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said, "The Main Street Employee Ownership Act will significantly expand the number of middle-class citizens who have a shot at a meaningful financial ownership stake in the company where they work through an ESOP or a worker cooperative." He also reported on new research showing that the average participant in an ESOP has a stock account balance of $134,000.

The NCEO's Corey Rosen has an op-ed in The Hill, in which he notes, "Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) are about as blue state liberal and red state conservative opposites as they can be. But they are the prime sponsors of a bill, The Main Street Employee Ownership Act, that is based on nothing less than the notion that we should be rethinking capitalism in a way that makes more workers owners."

In Employee Ownership is a Win-Win for Workers and Companies, published today at inequality.org, Rosen highlights the results of studies like NCEO's Employee Ownership and Economic Well-Being, which found that on average, employee-owners have higher incomes, higher household wealth, more benefits, and greater job stability than non-employee owners. Noting that employee ownership has broad bipartisan support but is not the top of many agendas politically, Rosen highlights Sen. Gillibrand's support of the Main Street Employee Ownership Act and concludes, "We would all do well to join her."