Millions of business owners are about to retire. They should sell to their employees | Fortune

American workers report weakening economic footing as wages’ share of national income reaches a historic low, affordability pressures rise for families, and businesses increasingly adopt artificial intelligence. Political polarization limits agreement on how to give workers a real stake in national prosperity. Employee ownership is presented as a bipartisan approach that spreads economic gains. Conversations with employee owners across many company sizes and industries describe shared ideas from workers and profit sharing through structures like Employee Stock Ownership Plans. Workers report stronger commitment and motivation, mutual accountability, and clearer links between effort, profits, and personal benefit. They also describe improved financial security and more dignified retirement prospects.

"Employee ownership offers a promising path forward that is rooted in bipartisan ideals and designed to ensure economic prosperity is widely shared. We've spent the last six months talking to employee owners across the country at companies with just a few workers to those with several thousand, in industries ranging from manufacturing to home care. What employee-owned firms hold in common is that they draw ideas from the wisdom of their workers and share their profits, whether a worker is on the factory floor or in an office."

"The workers we spoke with told us that the ownership stake they have at work fosters a sense of commitment and motivation. A machine operator at a Vermont manufacturer who'd been with the company 37 years and was nearing retirement told us: "If you work for a boss, you feel like you're making money just for him." But as part of a company with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, he explained, "you know you're making money for your future and for yourself, not just somebody else.""

"Workers describe workplaces with shared goals and mutual accountability. Everyone knows: if everyone contributes their fair share of effort and profits increase it's the workers who stand to directly benefit. An ownership stake makes a real difference in workers' lives. Workers described how the extra money could help solidify their financial security in the present and help them retire with dignity."

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