Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks
When Nick Francia and Mark Padjen walked attendees through the complexities of ESOP transactions in a recent NCEO webinar, one thing became crystal clear: having the right quarterback makes all the difference.
Corey Rosen
The 2026 appropriations bill for the Department of Labor (DOL), passed on February 3 by Congress, lacks line-item funding for state employee ownership offices authorized by the WORK Act. The Senate Appropriations Committee had recommended a specific appropriation last July. However, a joint explanatory statement from the House and Senate appropriation committees states that $2 million should be provided for the Employee Ownership Initiative. In general, the joint explanatory statement notes that its recommendations on spending (which cover a variety of issues) “should be complied with unless specifically addressed to the contrary in this explanatory statement.”
Nancy Wiefek
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.
Corey Rosen
Thanks to Kosta Juri, director of operations at the Institute for Economic Democracy (IED), and Rachel Bachmann, head of strategic initiatives at IED, for helping draft this post.
Last week, the European Parliament (EP) plenary adopted (by 492 votes in favor, 144 against, and 28 abstentions) a resolution with recommendations to the European Commission to propose a harmonizing directive aimed at creating an EU-wide unified legal framework (the “28th Regime,” referring to an additional legal framework alongside those of the current 27 member states) for innovative companies.
Matthew Licina
The NCEO Annual Conference brings together over 2,300 leaders in the employee ownership community. While ESOPs make up a significant portion of our attendee base, this year’s conference in Milwaukee (April 6-9) features 46 sessions relevant to non-ESOP employee-ownership structures—nearly a third of the entire program.
Corey Rosen
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the US Department of Labor (DOL) announced today that it removed ESOPs from its national enforcement project list. ESOPs had been on that list since 2005 as one of five items on the list, which also included improper handling of various health plan issues, criminal abuse of defined contribution plans, plan investment conflicts, and benefit distribution violations.
Corey Rosen
Denmark has become the third European country to pass legislation to encourage employee ownership through a trust or similar collective arrangement, joining the UK (2014) and Slovenia (2025).
Scott Rodrick
The Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA) reports that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced that a “side by side” arrangement will exempt all US companies from a new 15% tax on the global income of large multinational corporations. Senior US Treasury staff members have assured ESCA representatives that the US exemption will cover multinational US ESOP-owned S corporations, which otherwise would be subject to entity-level taxes.
Corey Rosen
The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI is paying employees more in stock compensation than any other tech startup in history. Based on data from Equilar, the Journal found that the total stock compensation averages $1.5 million per employee, more than seven times what Google disclosed when it went public in 2004.
