The Equity Project
The need for wider and deeper participation in the creation and sharing of wealth is urgent. We need to re-imagine how people from all walks of life can participate fully in the economy and in society. As a small but important step towards that, the Equity Project seeks to encourage and facilitate a step change increase in the direct ownership of shares across the workforce, in as many companies in the UK as possible.
Participation in capitalism requires opportunity to participate in the creation and sharing of wealth, not just the receipt of wages. That opportunity needs to be much more widely available — notwithstanding the success of existing schemes which already allow employee share ownership (or indirect interest in shares).
The Equity Project is a non-profit organisation, committed to taking specific concrete steps to promote direct workforce equity ownership to help to address the structural challenges that capitalism is facing, and to ensure that progressive widening worker equity ownership is simple — in particular through legislation and education. Legislation should facilitate not compel wider equity ownership. Education should inform companies of the benefits of giving and employees of the benefits of having shares.
By sharing the value of capital growth, employees share in the value of their efforts. Shared value and shared values are the key to long term social and economic harmony and cohesion.
“When everyone gains from share value, it leads to a society based upon shareD valueS.”
Key principles:-
Companies should be encouraged, not compelled, to widen their share ownership.
Employees should ideally hold shares directly, not indirectly through a trust or other holding structure.
Legislation should be simple to reduce costs, time-sink and delay.
“Workforce Equity Ownership is where employees directly own equity in the company thereby becoming members of the company and enjoy the rights that go with it. ”
The Equity Project’s Principles
Workforce Equity Ownership must be simple.
Workers thereby become members of the company.
Employees should own the shares with immediate effect.
The acquisition of shares should be voluntary.
No tax charge on the receipt of shares.
Shares should be held on an individual basis.
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