Employee ownership, a bipartisan-supported business model that rewards owners, improves company performance, reduces employee turnover and enables workers to build wealth on top of wages, is getting a major boost in the tri-state region.
Rutgers University’s New Jersey/New York Center for Employee Ownership (NJ/NYCEO) and the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (PaCEO) announced July 1 a partnership focused on expanding the number of employee-owned businesses in all three states by the year 2030.
Ken Baker, a national leader in developing employee ownership, is supporting the collaboration with a $1 million endowment.
Baker is the former CEO of NewAge Industries in Southampton, Pa., a manufacturer of biopharmaceutical and industrial fluid transfer systems. He established employee ownership at NewAge in 2006 and co-founded the PaCEO in 2016. Today, he serves on the board for both organizations.
“Combining critical research from Rutgers and state-of-the-art technology and methods from the PaCEO and The Baker Project, this partnership has the opportunity to provide a tremendous economic future for working people and communities throughout the U.S.,” said Baker. “Our goal is to change lives for the better. It is my honor to support this important endeavor.”
There are nearly 700 businesses based in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania that have employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), employing more than 1.4 million people and holding about $48 billion in stock. This includes mostly small- and medium-sized businesses and publicly traded companies. Participating workers receive an ownership stake at no cost, enabling them to share in their employer’s success and build wealth.
Recent ESOP transitions in New Jersey include Becht Engineering BT, an engineering and consulting firm in Warren that announced in January 2025 that it is now 100% employee-owned through an ESOP. Next Evolution, a fire suppression company and hazardous chemical recycler in Metuchen, became 100% employee-owned through an ESOP in November 2024.
With a supportive culture, ESOP companies typically have higher productivity and lower employee turnover than their competitors, research shows. However, many business owners do not realize that an ESOP is a viable option for their company: a knowledge gap that is especially urgent for those who are nearing retirement without a succession plan.
The new four-year collaboration between the NJ/NYCEO and PaCEO will address this gap through education, outreach, and deployment of The Baker Project’s new AI-based assessment tool, which helps business owners decide whether an ESOP is right for them.
State
Businesses with an ESOP
Active Workers Covered by ESOPs
Employer Stock Held by ESOPs
New Jersey
110
535,186
$15.5 billion
New York
288
556,495
$16.0 billion
Pennsylvania
289
363,856
$16.4 billion
*This table is current as of 2023, the last year for which federal data are available.