Employee Ownership Blog

Timothy Garbinsky

Illinois Opens Employee Ownership Center, a Milestone for State Outreach

Our friends at the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) have announced the launch of a state center for employee ownership in Illinois. Much like the other state centers launched by the EOX in Minnesota, North Carolina, Missouri, and elsewhere, the Illinois Center for Employee Ownership focuses on providing resources on employee ownership as a succession option for businesses across their communities. By partnering with local universities (as in Pennsylvania) and government entities, as well as employee-owned businesses and service providers, state centers are able to serve as "boots on the ground" in the effort to spread the word about employee ownership. The hope is that state centers, through their unbiased, solutions-oriented outreach, will lead to a real sea change, building momentum for all forms of broad-based employee ownership.

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Grace Dawson

The 2022 Holiday Gift Guide Is Here!

It's time to start (or finish) your holiday shopping with gifts from employee-owned companies! Just in time for this gift-giving season, our 2022 Holiday Gift Guide highlights several employee-owned companies with fantastic gifts for everyone on your holiday shopping list, from music enthusiasts and bookworms, to dog lovers and aspiring chefs. 

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Nancy Wiefek

New York State Releases Report Highlighting Employee Ownership

The Office of the New York State Comptroller recently released a report “Employee Ownership of Businesses in New York State” outlining the most common forms of employee ownership, the number of such businesses in New York State from the NCEO comprehensive database, and how “employee ownership can positively impact employee compensation and retirement assets making it an effective tool to create lasting wealth and improving employee satisfaction.” 

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NCEO

The PaCEO Holds Press Conference for EO Month and New Bill

On October 26, 2022, Pennsylvania celebrated Employee Ownership Month with a press conference in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg. The celebration included a citation honoring the nonprofit Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (PaCEO), but more importantly, it included the formal introduction of PA House Bill HB-2888, establishing a Pennsylvania Office of Employee Ownership, and the introduction of the Pennsylvania Employee Ownership Assistance Act.      

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Corey Rosen

SBA Says Main Street Employee Ownership Act Has Not Produced Many ESOP Loans

The 2018 Main Street Employee Ownership Act was intended to spur lending from the Small Business Administration for ESOP transactions. While the law seemed very clear that ESOPs should be eligible for  the SBA’s 7(a) lending program (a program that allows borrowers to get loans through SBA approved lenders rather than having to navigate the more cumbersome process of going to the SBA directly), SBA guidance on the Act excluded ESOPs from the program, as well as adding other requirements for equity in the deal and a separate valuation, that have made the law cumbersome at best.

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NCEO

House Passes Bill That Would Limit Arbitration in ERISA Plans

By a vote of 220-205, the House passed the Mental Health Matters Act. Most of the bill would provide funds to expand access to mental health and substance abuse services for children and young adults but another provision would bar compulsory arbitration in all ERISA plans. Additionally, it would ban forced arbitration clauses, class action waivers, and discretionary clauses, and it would make representation waivers unenforceable. Participants can still agree to arbitration after a dispute arises, but only if:

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Corey Rosen

How the California Employee Ownership Act Became Law

The passage of the California Employee Ownership Act, the provisions of which I discussed in a recent blog post, has lessons for anyone wanting to move employee ownership forward in a state. We often think of legislation as the result of lobbying efforts by well-funded and/or politically connected groups. But the California Employee Ownership Act was the result of one employee ownership advocate calling one state legislator (Senator Josh Becker) and explaining the benefits of employee ownership in closing racial wealth and equity gaps in California. Senator Becker, coming from an entrepreneurial background, grasped the idea immediately and asked what he could do to promote more employee ownership in California. With his staff, he set up a meeting with a group of worker coop and ESOP advocates (including the NCEO) to come up with ideas. That group recruited additional supporters, and once the bill was drafted, these supporters lined up other supporters to contact their legislators (the NCEO was not involved in the lobbying part of this process). The bill moved through both houses without dissent. While the idea did not simply sell itself, it came pretty close.

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