employee ownership
Staff holds stakes
Employee ownership is an arrangement where workers hold a stake in the company that employs them, typically through stock or profit-sharing plans.
The most common structure in the U.S. is an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan).
Proponents argue it aligns worker and company interests: The brewery transitioned to employee ownership when the founder retired.
The degree of ownership and control varies widely—from token shares to worker cooperatives where employees collectively own and govern the enterprise.
- stock optionsContracts to purchase shares
- sharesUnits of company ownership
- skin in the gamePersonal risk in outcome
- piece of the piePortion of something divided
- equityImpartial treatment or ownership value
stake · worker cooperative · wealth distribution · productivity gains · tax incentives · income equality · stocks · vote · financial literacy · founders · fiduciary duty · profit-sharing · co-op · bonus · startup · stakeholder · workplace · empowerment
- business ownershipowner, sole proprietor, sole proprietorship, co-owner, proprietor
- profit sharingprofit sharing, profit-sharing, shared profits, revenue sharing, bonus
- shared ownershipco-op, cooperative, joint tenancy, communal property, community property
- distributismsubsidiarity, private property, small enterprise, family business, smallholding
- worker democracyworker control, worker cooperatives, worker councils, workers councils, workplace democracy
- cooperativesco-op, credit union, worker co-op, housing co-op, co-ops
employee ownershipabsentee ownership
Possessing property without presence
family ownership · sole proprietorship · public company · corporate ownership · management buyout
employee ownershipwage labor
Work exchanged for payment
at-will employment · gig work · labor exploitation · contract labor · gig economy