Work to Own is a non-profit founded by Bill Mundell to address the systemic lack of economic mobility in America through a first ever Employee Ownership (EO) Index. This “Company Gini Index” measures and compares broad-based employee ownership at the company level.
Abraham Lincoln once said: “I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich … while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else.”
Whether entrepreneur, employee, or gig worker, we believe Americans should have a fair opportunity to harvest a more fully capitalized share of the value they are part of creating.
LACK OF ECONOMIC MOBILITY: AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES
Economic division is arguably the most stark and dangerous form of division in America today. Children of the least wealthy have almost no chance of moving up the ladder economically.
If this systemic issue is left unsolved, social instability will reach an irreversible tipping point that directly threatens American capitalism, democracy, and national security.
BROAD-BASED EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP: A WIN-WIN, MARKET-DRIVEN SOLUTION
Between 1989 and 2019, the value of company equities owned by the top 1% of the distribution grew by over 2,000%. By creating the opportunity for all American workers to earn equity based on performance, companies can play a lead role in restoring economic mobility while growing the value of their brands and mitigating reputational risk around this increasingly visible issue.
POWER OF INFORMATION: EO INDEX FOR PUBLIC COMPANIES
Our EO Index will empower the market to shape a single standard for broad-based ownership for the first time.
In Phase I, we are engineering a baseline index for the S&P 500. By March 2024, we will showcase a prototype EO Index for all 500 companies, based on the largest known dataset for employees at publicly traded companies. This will include a proprietary index for each company and a public-facing relative index to compare broad-based ownership between companies.
In Phase II, we iterate the index to account for equity ownership gaps between senior and mid- level employees, and the balance of each company’s workforce. Our awareness campaign uses innovative channels to showcase the index as a market-driven solution to economic mobility that benefits the bottom line while pre-empting the need for government legislation or regulation.
Work to Own is an internal non-profit project of The Giving Back Fund, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. | EIN: 04-3367888
