Ownership and Profit Sharing

• In an employee-owned company, shares of the company are distributed among all of its workers and are not traded publicly on the stock market. Such companies often implement a system of profit-sharing.
  
  

Decision Making

• Decision making within a fully employee-owned company happens democratically, but the particulars of organization and hierarchy are determined by the particular company. Companies may choose to begin an employee's ownership after he has been worked for a set amount of time, and profit distribution rewards may be arranged to grow over time. A company's employee's may also elect a Board of Directors to oversee operations.
  
  

Notable Employee-Owned Companies

• While small local business co-ops are common and becoming more and more numerous, there are some notable examples of large-scale employee-owned business. Some of these include the John Lewis Financial Corporation in the UK, the publishing firm Tribune Company and the Colorado beer-making company New Belgium Brewery.