Employee Ownership Blog

Michelle Cronin

Reflections on the OWN Health Annual Member Meeting

The San Diego gathering of OWN Health captive members offered a window into how employee-owned companies are reimagining healthcare benefits through collective action. With 13 member companies present, the meeting revealed the advantages that emerge when ESOP companies approach healthcare challenges collaboratively rather than in isolation. Unlike the typical insurance conference where vendors pitch solutions to passive buyers, this meeting emphasized the impact of employee ownership culture on ESOP company healthcare decisions and outcomes.

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Corey Rosen

MA Bill Would Promote Transition to Worker Coops

A new Massachusetts bill, "An Act promoting entrepreneurship through employee ownership," appearing in identical versions in the Massachusetts House and Senate as H. 503 and S. 305, respectively, would encourage small business owners to transition their firms to worker cooperatives. Companies must have at least three employees and meet the definition of a small business under Small Business Administration (SBA) standards. The sale must be to a worker cooperative or to an LLC or partnership that otherwise meets the requirements for worker cooperatives, including equal voting power for all employees who are designated as owners under the company’s bylaws. Profits must be distributed based on “patronage," defined as hours worked for the company.

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Corey Rosen

EBSA Nominee Daniel Aronowitz Pledges to "End the War on ESOPs"

Daniel Aronowitz, the nominee to head the Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) in the Department of Labor (DOL), promised to “end the war on ESOPs.”

At Aronowitz’s June 5, 2025, confirmation hearing (the segment with Aronowitz starts at 35:30 in the video), Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski (who once worked for an ESOP company) noted that Aronowitz was “probably very familiar with the angst that has been expressed by some that ESOPs have been operating under a patchwork of litigation and there has been a need for a single clear regulatory definition of good-faith effort of valuation of ESOP stock.”

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Matthew Licina

Funding Halted for WA Employee Ownership Program

Updated May 30, 2025. The author would like to thank Jack Moriarty of Lafayette Square Institute for his input.

Following speculation and legislative hearings featuring testimony from interested parties, the state of Washington has enacted changes to its employee ownership program. Signed into law on May 19 by Governor Bob Ferguson (D), HB 2047 will eliminate funding for the employee ownership program, initially launched in 2023, and will also sunset the associated tax credit for new applications after June 30, 2025.

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Scott Rodrick

DOL Secretary Praises ESOPs and Promises Support

In a keynote address today to the ESOP Association, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer expressed her support of ESOPs. “I want you to know that the Trump administration recognizes the real transformative power of employee stock ownership plans.” Referring to complaints by some in the ESOP community regarding how the Department of Labor (DOL) has conducted its regulatory oversight of ESOPs, she commented that “we’re here to undo the culture of harassment. . . . I understand how poor regulation and misguided agency agendas can directly impact business success. . . . It is my mission to support you, not regulate you into oblivion.”

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