From the Manistee News: Worker-owned businesses might not act much differently from conventional companies in the market. Whether a company is owned by outside shareholders or by its own employees, the incentive to maximize profits should be similar. It seems unlikely that cooperatives would be more altruistic, honest or socially responsible than the corporations that […]
From the Brattleboro Reformer: A training program for business owners and key managers working towards an exit plan will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation offices at 76 Cotton Mill Hill. Participants will learn the basics of how to choose a path for ownership succession […]
From Forbes: Income and wealth imbalances are getting bigger. There was a study done that found that every new tech worker in the Bay Area creates five low-wage service jobs – someone to clean their house, take care of their kids, cook food in restaurants, drive them around. So we’ve got the high-wage people, who […]
From NPQ: But there has been a snag in implementation—collateral. With an individually owned business, a small business owner will often pledge his or her home as collateral to secure a loan. But what if you have 100 owners? Are they supposed to pledge 100 homes? And what if they aren’t all homeowners? Enter a […]
From the Durango Herald: Inspired by other employee share owned plan companies, Wogamott and Zink began offering profit sharing in the early 1990s. They set aside 10% of profits to provide as cash bonuses to employees, Siggins said. “They discovered it was motivating and created more of an ownership mindset among employees,” she said. “Employees […]
From Next City: But at a city council meeting this past September, Berkeley City Council approved changes to the requirements for its small business loan fund, adding an alternative to a conventional personal guarantee, making it more friendly for worker-owned cooperatives. It may seem like a small victory, but it’s just one part of a […]
From Impact Alpha: The widening wealth gap has sparked interest in worker ownership models that can build individual and community wealth. Across the U.S., about 6,000 companies have Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs, and another 450 are worker co-ops. But the complexity involved and a lack of capital means those numbers have barely budged […]
From Plastics News: The seeds for NewAge’s future as an ESOP were initially planted back in the ’80s, when Baker received a piece of literature about employee ownership. The concept immediately resonated with him. While the company already was sharing profits through a gain sharing program, he wanted to take it further to develop committed, […]
From Big Think: Another system that takes these ideas even further is workplace democracy in the form of cooperatives. When done by the workers these are known as worker-cooperatives. In such an enterprise, the workers are both owners and employees. Business operations are carried out democratically, and profits shared according to what the workers think is […]
From City Beat: Can worker-owned businesses, innovative affordable housing practices and other cooperative efforts decrease economic inequality? A local co-op incubator is holding a national event here this weekend to explore those possibilities. Co-op Cincy, formerly known as the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative, will bring more than 200 cooperative workers, business leaders and community and […]