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Lawmakers should give worker-owned cooperatives a boost

IN MASSACHUSETTS, the business landscape is in the midst of a metamorphosis. Worker-owned cooperatives, where employees share ownership, daily management roles, and strategic governance decisions, and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), where companies share equity with their workers, are emerging as a powerful force.

In fact, there are now about three times as many worker-owned cooperative companies in Massachusetts as there were just a decade ago. ESOPs in the Commonwealth pull in, on average, over $50 million in annual revenue.

We are thrilled to see so many of the Commonwealth’s state senators agree, as evidenced by the recent unanimous passing of an amendment to the Senate budget to add $200,000 in funding for the Massachusetts Center for Employee Ownership (MassCEO). This measure, filed by Assistant Majority Whip Julian Cyr and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 10 other visionary senators, supports building a more just economy by investing in forms of employee ownership supported by MassCEO, including worker-owned businesses, employee stock ownerships plans and employee ownership trusts (EOTs).

Read the rest at CommonWealth Beacon

 

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