You may know that WinCo Foods stores and Bob’s Red Mill grocery products are owned by their employees through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). These companies are examples of a growing number of companies that have become private when the entrepreneurs who founded them or an investor who bought them restructure the company in favor of employee participation. Wikipedia says there are more than six thousand companies in the United States operating as employee-owned companies.

Although they are often considered a retirement plan like a 401(k), they offer an alternative to the more frequent corporate structure, which excessively rewards upper management. They usually pay their workers better than other companies in the same industry, and employee ownership encourages personal responsib

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