The Race to the Top

It’s an exciting time for shared ownership. Today in Colorado, Governor Polis signed an executive order creating the Commission on Employee Ownership. Our team is obviously thrilled about what this could mean for shared ownership and unlocking its power to address economic inequality and stagnant wages. In recognition of the moves being made in Colorado, Jason and Linda published a piece on the Fifty by Fifty blog – “Colorado Leads States in Preparing to Scale Employee Ownership.” The piece recognizes and celebrates Colorado’s commitment to employee ownership and outlines policy recommendations for Colorado and other states that want to incentivize employee ownership. The piece invites competition and asks other states to follow Colorado, the “Delaware of Co-op Law,” in prioritizing employee ownership to address the social and economic challenges faced by communities across the country. Massachusetts has already joined the movement; it recently announced the revival of its Office for Employee Involvement and Ownership. in a time when the federal government is divided and stagnant, our hope is that this is just the beginning of a movement by the states to step up and be the “laboratories of democracy” we need them to be.