Encouraging Inclusive Growth: The Employee Equity Loan Act

Abstract

Broad-based employee ownership of private sector enterprise, brought about primarily through the use of Employee Stock Ownership Plans or ESOP’s, is an idea with a thirty-five-year record of bringing economic inclusion to nearly 14 million citizen/employees in 7,000 companies. Especially given the rise of private equity, which needlessly robs communities of continuous, value-added employment, there is urgency to mitigate this process. The opportunity through the use of broad-based employee ownership must be seized quickly and decisively.