Winner of the William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte Book Prize
from the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and
Profit Sharing
Employee ownership creates stronger companies, helps workers build
wealth, and fosters a fairer, more stable society. In this book, two
leading experts show how it works--and how it can be greatly expanded.
Wages don't cover the bills. Wealth inequality is growing. Social trust
is eroding. There are endless debates about what to do, but one key
factor is inexplicably left out: who owns the companies that drive the
economy?
Ownership matters. Ownership by a few means benefits for a few. But if
you spread ownership around, you spread the benefits of capitalism
around. Employee ownership lets workers build real wealth, not just pick
up a paycheck. And it's a piece of the puzzle that's in plain sight. As
Corey Rosen and John Case point out, there are already thousands of
prosperous employee-owned companies.
Rosen and Case explain why so many companies end up being owned by Wall
Street shareholders or private equity firms--and why that kind of
ownership encourages a focus on short-term profits rather than the
long-term sustainability needed by employees, communities, and the
environment. They show the limits of reform efforts that don't address
the essential issue of who owns what.
But the heart of the book is a deep dive into how employee ownership
originated, how it works now, and what needs to be done to expand it.
The book looks at how the idea is growing, both in the United States and
around the world--and why all sides of the political spectrum support
it.
Rosen and Case offer a vivid portrait of a form of ownership that
results in more prosperous workers, more responsible companies, and a
fairer, more stable society.
