This fact sheet, released at the 2024 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, summarizes some of the latest research on employee ownership with a focus on employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).

This piece provides an overview of job quality challenges affecting LGBTQ+ workers, including economic need, discrimination, and barriers to career advancement. The piece also contextualizes these challenges in the current landscape of anti-LGBTQ+ policies being passed in the United States.

This interactive guide helps business owners understand the role an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) could play at their company. It provides a general overview of the structure of ESOPs, links to external resources, and describes the nuances of ESOPs in different corporate structures (C-Corp, B-Corp, or other form). Users of the tool are able to customize the path through the guide in accordance with the type of corporation they want to transition to employee ownership.

In this event, Benjamin Lorr, author of “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket,” traces the history and evolution of the modern-day supermarket, exposes the grocery supply chain, and reveals the often exploited and underpaid labor that goes into making sure shelves are stocked. Lorr paints a vivid picture of how agricultural and meat processing workers, fisherman, truck drivers, and grocery store workers, among others, often endure poverty and sometimes worse as they work to feed our country.

Recent research by UpSkill America and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) has found that only 25% of the HR leaders who took part in a December 2023 i4cp survey perceived workforce development as a strength of their organization, and just 9% of more than 100 private and public company board directors surveyed indicated they were very confident in their company’s ability to effectively upskill its employees for the future. Read the brief to learn more about next practices in upskilling, including internal training, apprenticeship, and tuition assistance that will help any organization to be more productive and resilient for the future.

In this event, Natalie Foster, author of “The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy,” asks us to imagine a new economic framework that casts aside the failures of the trickle-down approach and builds economic security and well-being from the bottom up. Foster, who serves as president and co-founder of the Economic Security Project and as a senior fellow with the Institute’s Future of Work Initiative, describes a bold vision in which housing, health care, higher education, dignified work, family care, and an opportunity to build generational wealth are guaranteed for all by our government.

The 2024 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum brought together members of Congress and their staff, government officials, practitioners, researchers, think tanks, philanthropy, investors, and the leaders of employee-owned companies to learn about and discuss the latest in policy, research, finance, and practice. The theme was “Employee Ownership on the Ground,” which brought innovative employee share ownership initiatives and speakers from around the country to DC to highlight how this bipartisan approach to improving jobs, wealth creation, and business performance is helping create more equitable economies in states, cities, and rural communities.

In this event, panelists discuss the challenges that poultry and meatpacking workers face, ideas for improving their jobs and well-being, and the policies and practices to reshape this industry and build a sustainable system where workers, consumers, and businesses thrive together.

In this event, panelists discuss the long-standing challenges that farmworkers face and how to build good jobs in this essential sector. In short, better jobs are possible and within reach. Multiple states have led the way in legislating better pay and protections, including the right to organize, a right these essential workers have long been excluded from.

In this event, Nick Romeo, author of “The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy,” explores a paradigm shift in economic thinking, which challenges the prevailing notions perpetuated by many economists and business leaders. Romeo presents a vision of economies that are more equal, just, and livable, showcasing real-world examples of success and offering a glimpse into a viable alternative economic system.