The National Center for Employee Ownership founder and senior staff member, Corey Rosen, has written a thorough article in regards to "The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill with many parts that was signed into law on December 29, contains major wins for employee ownership as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022."

Wisconsin Senator, Ron Johnson (R),  who previously worked for an employee-owned company would like to "link government assistance with employee ownership". Read more here: https://www.nceo.org/employee-ownership-blog/us-senator-says-link-employee-ownership-government-aid

Maine State Senator Nate Libby (D-Lewiston) introduced L.D. 1520, which would provide state-level tax incentives for businesses that establish employee ownership, defined to include ESOPs and worker cooperatives, as well as consumer cooperatives and affording housing cooperatives. The bill would shelter from Maine's income tax up to $750,000 of gains on a qualifying sale. The bill would also assign Maine's Department of Economic and Community Development responsibility for support and outreach about employee ownership and would exempt interest income earned from financing the sale from state tax for sellers and Maine-based lenders.

On June 19, 2017, the NCEO created the Employee Ownership Index, an index of 28 publicly traded companies that had both broad-based employee ownership and had won one of three major national employer rating awards, each of which puts a high emphasis on employee engagement (Fortune's Best Companies to Work for, the Gallup Engagement Index, and the Enterprise Engagement Alliance awards). Broad-based employee ownership included ESOPs where there was an average account balance of $30,000 or more and companies that provided equity grants to most or all full-time employees.

Guest Commentary

How Well Do ESOP Acquisitions of Non-ESOP Companies Work?

Suzanne Cromlish

February 5, 2016

According to the National Center for Employee Ownership, in recent years ESOP companies have been acquiring other companies at a rapid rate. There are probably as many or more companies acquired by ESOP companies as there are new ESOPs in any year. Until now, there has been no data on how well these acquisitions work. Wharton professor Robert Holthausen notes that 50% to 80% of all mergers fail to deliver positive results.

This research project looks at what happens in ESOP acquisitions. Most successful ESOP companies implement various types of progressive organizational strategies, including open-book management and high-involvement decision making, that may help overcome a principal challenge to mergers and acquisitions, namely difficulties with cultural integration. They also almost always make the target employees part of the ESOP. These practices of active employee engagement and participation enhance productivity and profitability because employees are personally empowered to improve company performance. This study focused on how other companies were acquired by an existing ESOP and how these target companies become employee-owned, with two key questions in mind:

Get the Most Out of Your ESOP : An ESOP Communication and Culture Forum

Is your ESOP company developing a culture of ownership, building the effectiveness of your ESOP plan, or does your company need to take a refresher course in ESOP communication and culture issues? Then you should send a representative to attend the 2 day Get the Most Out of Your ESOP: An ESOP Communication and Culture Forum, presented by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO). The events take place at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Inner Harbor, in Baltimore, Maryland on September 29 and 30, 2015. An added bonus “Pre-Forum” half day meeting is also planned for Monday afternoon, September 28.

Tom Roback will be speaking at this event, with a presentation entitled "The Impact of Plan Design and Operations on Ownership Culture" to take place on Tuesday, September 29 at 10:30 a.m. This session will look at how Plan provisions can be structured or redesigned to optimize an active and sustainable ownership culture at an ESOP company.