New Wilson College of Business research highlights ESOP benefits for young workers
New Wilson College of Business research highlights ESOP benefits for young workers
The employee ownership model is gaining traction across the U.S. as a powerful tool for addressing financial inequalities, especially in rural and underserved communities. Despite these advantages, a 2021 Rutgers University study highlighted that Iowa has lagged other states in businesses adopting Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs).
The Wilson College of Business at the University of Northern Iowa is now spearheading an initiative to change that, named the Academic Center for Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, thanks to funding from the Ford Foundation. And new research from this initiative offers compelling evidence of the benefits of ESOPs for young workers.
The project was led by Andres Cuadros-Meñaca, who joined the Wilson College of Business last year and is one of the 2024-25 Wilson College Rutgers Fellows, awarded through the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University.
Cuadros-Meñaca's research investigates the impact of ESOPs on early employment stability and subjective well-being, focusing on a cohort’s first job experience between 1997 and 2006. The results show that ESOPs seem to have an incentivizing effect for young workers. Cuadros-Menaca recently presented the findings at the Third Annual Rutgers–Oxford Employee Ownership Research Conference at the University of Oxford.
Employee ownership, especially through ESOPs, can make a real difference for young people in their work lives. It's connected to them working more weeks and more hours, and people in these companies report feeling more satisfied with their jobs. While I didn't find evidence that it makes people less likely to look for other jobs while being employed, that increase in job satisfaction is still very meaningful.
What are the overall benefits of these findings? Generally, when workers are more satisfied and engaged, it can lead to stronger companies and, in the long term, a more stable economy.
The research was made possible in large part by a $315,000 gift from the Ford Foundation to UNI’s Iowa Center for Employee Ownership (IA-CEO), part of UNI’s Business and Community Services organization and its Advance Iowa program.
"I’m very grateful to the Ford Foundation for their support through the fellowship," Cuadros-Meñaca said. "And I was excited about this opportunity to research something new. While there was a lot of research about employee ownership and employee well-being, there wasn’t a lot out there about employee stock ownership plans and their effects on early-career work conditions.”
With this impactful research, Cuadros-Meñaca has been engaging with employee-owned companies across Iowa. He hopes that once the research is published, it will encourage more businesses to consider ESOPs to incentivize their workforce.
He plans to continue these in-person conversations on Oct. 23 at the 2025 IA-CEO Employee Ownership Conference, hosted by the IA-CEO, which he attended last year. These interactions with ESOP businesses provide crucial real-world context to his research and are also his favorite part of the job.
"It was exciting to hear directly from Iowa employee-owned companies in the IA-CEO Employee Ownership Annual Conference and the effects ESOPs have on the workforce,” Cuadros-Meñaca said. “Through the research and my conversations, it’s clear that employee ownership has the potential to benefit not just individuals, but the economy as a whole."
