Periodically, we report on the kinds of company announcements not likely to make the news, but typifying the employee ownership world. One such case is Environmental Sciences Associates, a leading California-based environmental consulting firm.
We at the NCEO now estimate that between seven and ten million employees actually receive stock options in their companies, up from under one million in 1992. Precise estimates are not possible because companies do not have to report the distribution of options under their plans.
Writing in the March 5 issue of the New York Times Magazine, best-selling business author Michael Lewis (Liar's Poker and The New, New Thing, among others) says that "the single most powerful trend in American work [is] employee ownership." Lewis has somewhat mixed feelings about th
Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives to clarify that stock option awards should not be taken into account when calculating overtime pay.
The Clinton Administration has proposed a new version of its ESOP S corporation reform legislation that would require ESOPs in these companies to pay unrelated business income tax (UBIT) on its pro-rata share of corporate profits if more than 10% of the allocations in the plan went either to high
Trinidad and Tobago now has about 22 registered employee stock ownership plans, covering about 10,000 participants. Companies register their plans as profit sharing plans with an employer stock feature.
The Department of Labor's opinion letter stating that a company had to count the spread on option exercises by hourly workers as wages subject to overtime pay has resulted in a predictable flurry of criticism.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has said that it will issue final guidance on employee stock option accounting rules March 31. The guidance will not be subject to comments.
A common misperception about employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) is that they only work for larger employers. Rules of thumb vary; some practitioners say $1 million in revenues; some say 20 or 30 employees are needed before an ESOP makes sense.
An opinion letter released December 23rd by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) concludes that option gains need to be counted as compensation for the purpose of overtime pay.
