EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANIES A growing trend

In 1974, Congress passed laws to encourage companies to sell their stock to employees. Since then:
More than 11,500 companies in the United States are at last partially employee-owned.
About 2,500 are majority-owned by the employees.
About 1,500 are completely owned by the employees.
More than 9 million people work in employee-owned companies.
Nine percent are publicly traded.
Four percent are unionized.
At least 75 percent of employees used borrowed funds to buy the company stock.