The ESOP Association and its members, including ESOP Partners, are celebrating Employee Ownership Month throughout October as a way to promote the benefits of ESOPs to employees, businesses and communities around the country. Today there are approximately 10,000 ESOPs in place in the U.S., covering 13.9 million employees, or about 10% of the private sector workforce.
As just one example of ESOP Partners’ commitment to the movement, we recently recorded a public service announcement (PSA) for our local radio; to listen click here.
The Employee Ownership Foundation’s 24th Annual Economic Performance Survey in 2015 showed that nearly 77% of survey respondents indicated their ESOP positively affected the overall productivity of their employees and nearly 78% said their revenue increased as a result of implementing an ESOP. These are just some of the reasons an ESOP makes sense for many companies.
In the age of baby boomers’ succession planning, leading up to the greatest business wealth transfer we’ve ever seen, our goal of the PSA is to help educate our community and bring awareness to the benefits of an ESOP. The PSA includes this statement explaining the general concept: “An ESOP is a retirement plan, similar to a 401(k) plan, that rewards employees by providing them with an ownership stake in the company they work for and adding to their retirement savings. The ESOP benefit is paid for by the company and provides a tax-efficient way for business owners to transition their businesses on their own terms. This protects jobs and the company legacy, while keeping the company in the local community.”