Policy Proposal: Support Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing

On July 21, the Center for American Progress, released the report Capitalism for Everyone. The authors, Karla Walter, David Madland, and Danielle Corley, make a case for policies designed to encourage companies to adopt employee ownership programs and broad-based profit sharing, to paraphrase the report's subtitle. The report opens, "[w]hen a company does well, so should its workers. American workers have helped the economy grow by becoming more productive. . . . Broad-based sharing programs—such as granting workers an ownership stake or a share of profits based on workers' collective performance—can help ensure that workers are rewarded for the wealth they generate."

The authors argue for changes in tax code, the creation of an Office of Inclusive Capitalism, and adjusting rules for determining which businesses qualify as minority- or women-owned, and they endorse the Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act, which supports S corporation ESOPs.