News Summary

• If the company’s products turn out to be inferior next year their stock in the company will tank, if the company goes bankrupt in 20 years it will go down to zero.
• They take that seriously.”Every month, Central States executives share the company’s P&L with employees, and every year they share the financials of the business at annual shareholders meetings, where employee-owners can participate in discussions about the future of the company.
• But unlike Walmart, Amazon, and Apple, it’s not just the executives getting paid out.“It’s not like 80 percent of the company is owned by management and the rest is owned by employees, it’s really well spread across all functions,” Ruger tells me.
• More specifically: He sold a portion of the shares of his company to an ESOP trust, which holds the company's shares on behalf of the employees.
• “Most ESOP companies start because the founder wants to exit or cash out, but they don't want to sell to a private equity firm that will run their company into the ground or slash and burn employee headcount,” Ware says.
• After a 1990s bill meant executives started getting paid in stock options while the rest of their employees earned a static salary, executive pay skyrocketed with the market while their workers’ pay stagnated.