December 17, 2018

National Survey of Worker Cooperatives

Executive Director

In The 2017 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report (registration required), the Democracy at Work Institute and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives share the results of their survey of worker cooperatives. The report concludes that there are 450 documented worker cooperatives employing over 6,700 people and generating annual sales of $467 million.

The typical worker cooperative in the survey employs nine people, pays an average wage of $15.82 per hour, and generates $589,000 in annual revenue. The top geographic concentrations of cooperatives identified in the report are the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Puerto Rico, and many cooperatives are also found in rural areas. Most worker cooperatives (69% of survey respondents) were established as coops, and another 25% were converted to worker cooperatives from other forms.

There is no central data collection on cooperatives, making this survey the most reliable information ever collected on worker cooperatives in the U.S. The results are based on survey responses from 105 businesses.