(Washington, DC, June 17, 2004) - The ESOP Association released new data today which provides the most detailed account of employee ownership and involvement in shared capitalism programs in the US ever developed. The data was collected from a series of questions on the most recent General Social Survey (GSS), which is the premier survey of social data in America. (The GSS was administered to a national random sample of working adults and is funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.)
Survey data from the GSS, which was released December 22, 2003, found that out of 108 million people in the US who work in the private-sector, 21% of employees own company stock, showing that employee stock ownership programs are significant to millions of Americans.
The new data from the GSS discredits the myth that union employees are not involved in employee ownership and shows that among union employees, 27.6% are involved in employee ownership programs. The new analysis also reveals the importance of stock ownership to all employee stock owners, as the median value of the employees’ employer stock ownership is over one-fifth of annual pay. Another myth crushed by the new analysis is that employee stock ownership is an isolated phenomenon in older American businesses involved in manufacturing durable goods. Employee stock ownership is significant in all areas of the American economy, ranging from a high of nearly 60% of employees in computer services to a low of nearly 14% in agriculture/mining/construction, with percentages for durable manufacturing, wholesale, utilities, non-durable manufacturing coming in at approximately 30%, 23%, 55%, and 30% respectively.
Earlier results from the GSS showed that over 80% of individuals who own company stock are more or less satisfied with their financial situation and another 78.9% of individuals strongly agree or agree that they have a good chance of improving their standard of living.
“This survey is just more evidence that our national leaders, including our presidential candidates, need to address the issue of employee ownership and its importance to millions of Americans,” said Association President, J. Michael Keeling. “The silence about employee ownership is deafening in the national debate. When a national survey of this magnitude illustrates just how important employee ownership is, I’d say it’s time for our leaders to take a bull horn to discuss employee ownership.”
The ESOP Association and its 501(c)(3) affiliate, the Employee Ownership Foundation, provided significant funding for the series of questions on shared capitalism. (Shared capitalism is defined as broad-based employee, current or deferred, stock compensation programs, such as ESOPs, stock purchases, stock options, gainsharing, profit sharing, and bonus programs.) The shared capitalism series of questions were developed and analyzed by well-known employee ownership researchers Dr.’s Joseph Blasi and Douglas Kruse (School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University), and Dr. Richard Freeman (Harvard University) for the Shared Capitalism Project of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1978, The ESOP Association represents over 1,300 ESOP companies and 750,000 employee owners who believe that employee ownership will improve American competitiveness, increase productivity through greater employee participation and strengthen our free enterprise economy.