Employee Ownership Blog

New Polling on How Americans Connect ESOPs to the Economy

New polling conducted by Echelon Insights on behalf of Expanding ESOPs has found that economic pessimism can be countered by proposing an economy where employees are able to share in the value of the company where they work. Specifically, they report: 

  • Most Americans do not initially know much about ESOPs, but about three in four people think they are a good idea after learning more.

  • After hearing a brief description, 83% believe ESOPs would be able to help employees get ahead financially.

  • 61% percent say having more companies with ESOPs would lead to more opportunity for the average American to get ahead, and 78% believe it would make the American dream achievable for more Americans.

  • The share of voters believing the US economic system is working well for Americans like them goes from 52% to 74% with the prospect of more companies sharing ownership through ESOPs.

  • While only 46% of employed respondents feel their company cares about their ability to get ahead financially, that rises to 80% who would feel their company cared if it offered an ESOP to employees.

  • Seven out of ten (69%) Americans say that if a political candidate proposed expanding tax breaks to encourage more companies to form ESOPs, it would signal that the candidate cared about how much opportunity average Americans have to get ahead financially.

The survey was conducted online among 1,024 registered voters. You can read more about the poll and findings at Expanding ESOPs.