Department of Labor announces Division of Employee Ownership and names Chief from the worker ownership movement

This July, the Department of Labor launched an initiative to promote worker-owned businesses. This effort is aimed at increasing workplace democracy and improving conditions for workers across the country.

“Worker ownership arrangements help create pathways for employees to earn a fair share of the profits that their labor makes possible and will play a critical role in the Biden-Harris administration’s fight to give workers a voice on the job and a seat at the table,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su. “This new Department of Labor initiative is an important step in implementing President Biden’s economic plan to empower workers and grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up — not the top down.”

As part of the Worker Ownership, Readiness, and Knowledge Act in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, EBSA will implement a new program to empower workers through ownership arrangements and educate those workers on possible pathways to greater rewards in return for their labor.

EBSA’s new initiative includes creation of the Division of Employee Ownership in EBSA’s Office of Outreach, Education and Assistance. The division will support the creation and expansion of worker-owned businesses by:

• Supporting existing programs designed to promote employee ownership and facilitating the formation of new programs.
• Developing a clearinghouse of techniques applied by new and existing state programs and sharing information about these techniques with states.
• Providing education, outreach, and training to inform employees and employers about the possibilities and benefits of worker ownership and business ownership succession planning.
• Providing technical assistance for employee’s efforts to become business owners and helping employers and employees explore the feasibility of transferring full or partial ownership to employees.

“By launching this initiative, the Employee Benefits Security Administration is working to help balance the distribution of power in America’s workplaces and empower the workers who fuel their employers’ ability to be successful day in, day out, while educating employers about how worker ownership can be good for business,” explained Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Lisa M. Gomez.

Most recently, the Department of Labor hired the Division Chief for the Division of Employee Ownership, Hillary Abell. Previously the Chief Policy & Impact Officer as well as cofounder of Project Equity, Hillary has a strong connection to the worker cooperative field, which will inform her new position as leader of this new initiative.

“This national Employee Ownership Initiative is an unprecedented investment by our federal government. It represents an opportunity to build on the momentum that employee ownership has gained in recent years and to enable many more people across the country to experience the benefits of worker voice and ownership. I am honored to take on this challenge,” said Ms. Abell.

The USFWC has been working closely with the Department of Labor to inform the Division of Employee Ownership, and will be continuing to advocate to ensure worker cooperatives are centralized in the work of the office.

“We are pleased to see that the Department of Labor has invested in the Division of Employee Ownership, and we are excited to see a leader with a strong familiarity with the worker cooperative movement installed to spearhead this work. Hillary Abell’s hiring shows that the DOL and the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) office which oversees the division sees the importance of both worker cooperative and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) sectors, and we look forward to working with Ms. Abell to ensure that worker cooperatives grow in prominence throughout federal government programs,” said Mo Manklang, Policy Director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives.

Hillary has also served previously as an Executive Committee Member of the USFWC’s Policy and Advocacy Council, a Core member of the Worker Owned Recovery California Coalition, a fellow of the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, a board member of Carolina Common Enterprise, and Farmer Representative and worker owner at Equal Exchange.