August 1, 2016

Republican Platform Supports ESOPs

Executive Director

On July 18, the Republican Party adopted its 2016 platform, which includes this language: "Republicans believe that the employer-employee relationship of the future will be built upon employee empowerment and workplace flexibility. We therefore endorse employee stock ownership plans that enable workers to become capitalists, expand the realm of private property, and energize a free enterprise economy" (page 8).

That language is similar to the 2012 Republican platform, although the 2012 platform used the term "employee ownership" and supported all ESOPs without the limiting qualification in the 2016 platform: "Republicans believe that the employer-employee relationship of the future will be built upon employee empowerment and workplace flexibility, which is why Republicans support employee ownership. We believe employee stock ownership plans create capitalists and expand the ownership of private property and are therefore the essence of a high-performing free enterprise economy, which creates opportunity for those who work and honors those values that have made our nation so strong" (page 7).

The Democratic Party's 2016 platform does not mention employee ownership, but it does include a paragraph titled "Helping More Workers Share in Near-Record Corporate Profits" (page 5).