Employee Ownership Blog

On June 15, 2004, the House Financial Services Committee passed H.H. 3574, "The Stock Options Accounting Reform Act," by a vote of 45-13.

The American Benefits Council (ABC), an employee benefits organization primarily for larger employers, has set as a policy goal that by 2014 there will be "a 50% increase in the number of employees who receive stock in broad-based stock options plans, stock purchase plans, and employee restricted

A new study from Hewitt Associates shows that employees and employers have not moved away from employer stock in retirement accounts, despite the experiences of Enron, WorldCom, and others in recent years.

For many years, there has been uncertainty about whether contributions to repay the principal on an ESOP loan are deductible in addition to contributions made to 401(k), profit sharing, and other defined contribution retirement plans.

In a new study, Towers Perrin analysts Michael Grund and Richard Ericson looked at 335 companies that voluntarily chose to expense options between April 2, 2001, and August 14, 2003 ( "Options Expensing Announcement Has No Impact on Share Prices," March 31, 2004).

The National Center for Employee Ownership has issued its annual "employee ownership 100 list," a compilation of the 100 largest majority employee owned companies. Companies are listed by the number of employees.

Forty major institutional investors and investor advisory groups, large public retirement funds, labor unions, institutional investors, and the Council of Institutional investors issued a statement on May 19 urging Congress not to tamper with accounting reform.

The NCEO's 23rd annual conference, held in Chicago jointly with the Beyster Institute, attracted a record turnout, selling out shortly before the conference started. Next year's conference, again with the Beyster Institute, will be in San Francisco April 20-22.

In their new study, "Corporate Governance, Executive Compensation, and Strategic Human Resource Management from 1992-2002," Joseph Blasi and Douglas Kruse of Rutgers University analyzed compensation for the top five executives and corporate performance in the 1,500 largest U.S.

Google's unusual IPO has attracted considerable discussion. Google's founders have made it very clear they do not intend to be a conventional company.

The IRS is now asking some accounting firms to provide names of any companies to whom they have sold S ESOP corporation tax shelters.

S. 2298, introduced by Senator John Breaux (D-LA) on April 7, 2004, would make a number of changes in ESOP law. The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. It would: