Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, finds that by increasing capital ownership, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) reduce wealth inequality, and, if plans were to proliferate, more workers across the country would benefit from the equalizing effects of ESOPs. Commissioned by the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), Bernstein’s report also finds that ESOPs do not have the effect of trading employee wages for ownership shares. In fact, the report argues that as employee ownership rises, wage inequality also falls.
