New Data: Upward Trend in Privately-Held ESOPs Continues
The Department of Labor has posted the latest filings data, which covers plan year 2023. The data includes a total of 6,609 ESOPs filing for 2023, covering 15.1 million participants holding over $2 trillion in total assets.
The number of unique companies with an ESOP is 6,411 (a company may sponsor multiple plans). See our Employee Ownership by the Numbers page for a more detailed look at the 2023 ESOP filing data.
In the last five filing years, the number of ESOPs at privately-held companies has been trending upward. During the same period, the number of ESOPs at publicly-held companies has decreased by 18%. The number of active participants at all ESOPs has grown by 781,872, with most of that coming from privately-held ESOPs.
Table 1. Change in number of ESOPs and active participants in private and public companies, 2019–2023
|
|
Number of plans |
Active participants (millions) |
||||
|
Privately held |
Publicly traded |
Total |
Privately held |
Publicly traded |
Total |
|
|
2019 |
5,880 |
602 |
6,482 |
1.50 |
8.72 |
10.21 |
|
2020 |
5,887 |
580 |
6,467 |
1.40 |
8.77 |
10.17 |
|
2021 |
5,973 |
560 |
6,533 |
1.76 |
8.95 |
10.7 |
|
2022 |
6,016 |
533 |
6,548 |
1.94 |
8.92 |
10.86 |
|
2023 |
6,098 |
511 |
6,609 |
2.13 |
8.86 |
10.99 |
Looking at the impact of ESOPs on workers and the economy, these plans paid over $166 billion dollars to participants in 2023 and made contributions of over $114 billion dollars.