Introducing Jason Wiener, P.C., a legal and consulting business for mission-driven companies. By Jason Wiener If the 18th century can be defined as the age of industrialization and competitive advantage of the nation state, the 19th century by the power of the corporation, and the 20th by corporate financialization, then, I believe, the 21st century […]
Continue ReadingNew models for employee ownership
The Woman Aiming to Get 50 Million Americans Into the Worker-Owner Economy
And she has a plan to do it. This interview by Fran Korten originally appeared in Yes! Magazine For decades Marjorie Kelly has looked for ways that businesses can better contribute to the good of society. In 1987, after getting a master’s degree in journalism, she founded Business Ethics magazine to showcase socially responsible corporations. But after 20 years […]
Continue ReadingMondragon through a Critical Lens
Ten Lessons from a visit to the Basque Cooperative Confederation By Jill Bamburg I recently completed a study tour to Mondragon, a small town in the Basque region of Spain, which is the home of the world’s largest and most advanced cooperative economy. In the United States, the cooperative sector, which represents over $500 billion in […]
Continue ReadingThe ESOP-erative
A new design: worker cooperative governance with ESOP tax benefits By Martin Staubus Businesses interested in transitioning into employee ownership are often presented with a structural dilemma: convert into an ESOP or a cooperative? Go for the democratic worker control and participation of a cooperative, or the tax benefits of an ESOP? I recently helped […]
Continue ReadingHalf of American Workers Could be Employee-Owners
by Thomas Dudley For those interested in employee ownership, it is critical to understand if employee ownership can achieve the scale required to truly reduce wealth inequality and create strong local economies. In a previous post, we saw that today there are thousands of employee-owned business operating in every industry and employing up to 2 million Americans. But while […]
Continue ReadingSix Lessons in Getting Published
Spreading the world on employee ownership by Majorie Kelly Okay, true confessions: I used to be a weekly columnist for a daily paper. That was on top of my work at that time as publisher of Business Ethics magazine. I’m a journalist at heart, and the daily paper is still the beating heart of journalism, in my […]
Continue ReadingReal Pickles DPO: How Employees Raised Half a Million Dollars to Buy a Business
A Creative Tool For Financing a Worker Cooperative by Erin M. Kesler Real Pickles sold its first jar of organic dills in 2001, when founders Dan Rosenberg and his wife, Addie Rose Holland, decided to turn their pickle-making hobby into a business. By 2015, the business had grown to over than $1 million in revenue. […]
Continue ReadingHow Big is America’s Employee-Owned Economy?
by Thomas Dudley Employee ownership (EO) is gaining traction as a way to address a number of social questions including rising wealth inequality, and the best way to create strong local economies As a sign of employee ownership’s increasing importance look no further than Colorado, where Congressman Jared Polis kicked-off his gubernatorial campaign at Save-A-Lot, an employee-owned grocery store. If we […]
Continue ReadingNew Report: Opportunities for Impact Investing in Employee Ownership
by Erin M. Kesler With income inequality in the United States at record high levels, employee ownership is increasingly being lauded as a potential solution to spreading wealth more broadly. Most recently, research from the National Center for Employee Ownership released in May shows that employee owners have a household net worth that is 92 percent higher than non-employee owners. […]
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