Corey Rosen
In its 128-page report “Creating an Economic System That Works for All,” the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) urges a variety of steps to promote broad-based employee ownership.
Corey Rosen
In June 2017, the NCEO created the Employee Ownership Index, an index of publicly traded companies that both had won major awards for high engagement management styles and had some form of broad-based employee ownership. The list was updated each year as some companies were added and some dropped off. Since that time, the Index outperformed the S&P 500 by about a 2 to 1 ratio. Until May of this year, the Index was housed at Motif Investments, an online platform that allowed users to develop funds that others could invest in. Motif was sold to Folio, and Folio does not allow that kind of investment. No other platform allows this, so the Index is not available as an investment.
Corey Rosen
Many ESOP companies provide financial wellness education for employees—and even more should. Employees really appreciate the help in learning how to think about wealth-building strategies for the long term, and especially how their ESOP accounts fit into that. But it can be hard to find the time and resources to put together a really effective package, so we have done it for you.
Corey Rosen
Want to see reinvention at work? Watch this video from the Motz Corporation (parent company of two external brands: The Motz Group and USGreentech):
Corey Rosen
A new study by Carver Edison shows that over the last five years, public companies with employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) had a return on equity of nearly 12% per year, compared to 7% in companies without these plans. They had operating margins of 9.5%, compared to 8.2% for non-ESPP companies, and they had four times the annual sales growth (4% to 1%). Almost half the S&P 500 and 40% of the Russell 3000 offer these plans. The study was based on market-weighted indices of ESPP and non-ESPP companies. It is not possible to tell whether companies that offer these plans tend to be better performers to begin with or whether there is a causal relationship with ESPPs.
Corey Rosen
A new bill introduced by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and an amendment to the Defense Authoriziation Act would both encourage employee ownership. The two proposals come shortly after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) advocated linking business support during the COVID crisis to employee ownership.
Corey Rosen
Only a handful of people in Congress have actually worked for an ESOP company, but Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is one of them. In an interview with Urban Milwaukee on July 3, Johnson suggested linking government assistance to employee ownership. “PPP on average probably provided a grant of around $11,000 per employee. So if we’re going to provide these grants, you know, restore capital, what I will say in exchange for the grant, a business that wants to reopen would then establish a new ownership structure, something like an employee stock ownership plan. I actually worked at one … and it’s a great form of ownership. Every employee participates. They participate in the earnings of the company, generally set up as a retirement type of plan. It’s a really good ownership structure for a capitalist society. I think it would also help alleviate the inequality gap as well.”
Corey Rosen
Update on July 16, 2020: Pursuant to a motion by the plaintiff-appellant, the Fourth Circuit has today dismissed the plaintiff's appeal of the district court's judgment.
Corey Rosen
On May 13, 2020, the SBA, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, updated its Frequently Asked Questions to include a new Question 46 that provides additional guidance about the certification needed to prove that the funds were necessary in order to maintain payroll and thus eligible for forgiveness.
