Creating Good Jobs: Lessons Learned from Worker Cooperatives, ESOPs and B Corporations
Audio (MP3)
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About the Event
The US economy continues to add jobs at a modest, yet steady pace. While job creation is a positive sign that the economy is beginning to heal, job reports in the last few months show low-wage sectors are predominantly the industries where people are finding work.
In addition to low pay, other job quality issues — such as few benefits, part-time hours, and limited training and advancement opportunities — are becoming more common in many sectors as some companies seek to maximize shareholder returns at the expense of investing in their workforce. A number of businesses, however, are trying to buck these trends and show that businesses can create quality jobs for their workers and still succeed in the marketplace.
Worker-owned cooperatives, B Corps companies, and businesses with employee stock ownership programs may offer ideas about ways to improve the returns to work.
These models, however, are not without their challenges. Many worker-owned cooperatives have failed and some ESOPs have ended up hurting the workers they were designed to benefit. In this event, panelists will have an honest discussion about these different approaches, including what it takes for these types of business models to succeed, the impacts of these models on profits and worker success, and what we can learn from these models that can apply to creating better jobs in our economy overall.
Featured speakers
Steven Dawson
Strategic advisor, PHI
Albert Fuller
CEO and chairman, Integrated Packaging Corporation
Jamie Raskin
Maryland State Senator and Professor at American University’s Washington College of Law
Camille Kerr
Research director, The National Center for Employee Ownership
Moderator
Lydia DePillis
Reporter for “Wonkblog,” The Washington Post
Related resources
Fact Sheet on Worker Cooperatives, ESOPs, and B Corporations
Economic Opportunities Program Director: Good Jobs Are Good Business
This event is part of the Working in America series, an ongoing discussion series hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program that highlights an array of critical issues affecting low- and moderate-income workers in the United States and ideas for improving and expanding economic opportunities for working people. For more information, visit as.pn/workinginamerica.
Join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #talkgoodjobs.