ABSTRACT This paper investigates whether ESOPs closed the wage gap and provided better benefits for millennial workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The four factors that will be the focus are wages, non-wage benefits, COVID-19 outcomes, and risk of catching COVID-19. The sample size of this study is 4,417, and logit regressions were used to analyse data from Round 20 of the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, collected in 2021. The study found that ESOP jobs provide higher wages and more non-wage benefits than non-ESOP jobs. ESOP workers were less likely to experience a work stoppage during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no significant differences in the risk of catching COVID-19. Scholarship focuses on ESOPs’ ability to close the wealth gap between Black and White workers. While ESOPs do provide better wages than non- ESOP jobs, there is a large disparity between the wages of Black and White ESOP workers.