Broad-based employee ownership of private sector enterprise, brought about primarily through the use of Employee Stock Ownership Plans or ESOP’s, is an idea with a thirty-five-year record of bringing economic inclusion to nearly 14 million citizen/employees in 7,000 companies. Especially given the rise of private equity, which needlessly robs communities of continuous, value-added employment, there is urgency to mitigate this process. The opportunity through the use of broad-based employee ownership must be seized quickly and decisively.

Notes

1 Definitions of the “Middle-Market” of closely held firm vary. For our purposes, we are defining this market as firms with between $50M and $1B in annual revenue.

2 The official website of the United States Export-Import bank describes provides an account of its policies and procedures. https://www.exim.gov/.

3 As of this writing, the 116th Congress is considering S 177, The Promotion and Expansion of Employee Ownership Act introduced by Senator Pat Roberts (R-KN), co-sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD). The most recent Federal legislation approved by Congress was S. 2786 The Main Street Employee Ownership Act, co-sponsored by Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Todd Young (R-IN).