In December 2018, the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) published survey results about the role that employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) play in boosting retirement security. NCEO collected data on retirement account balances of S ESOP participants by wage and age categories to be compared to the same categories in national data. The survey finds S ESOP participants have more than twice the average total retirement balance of Americans nationally: $170,326 versus $80,339. Additionally, 97 percent of the surveyed companies offer at least one other retirement plan in addition to the ESOP, a stark contrast to the 32 percent of all workers in the U.S. who do not have access to any retirement benefits at all.
