It’s commonly thought that employee ownership and employee stock ownership plans are U.S.-centric. That’s not surprising since a poll of Americans found that employee ownership is as All-American as apple pie, baseball, and hot dogs. But employee ownership and ESOPs and ESOP-like structures are very much global in nature – and middle market businesses with international operations can help themselves by adopting these techniques.

It’s true that the earliest references to employee ownership and the first ESOP originated in the U.S. In 1733, Benjamin Franklin introduced a form of EO by allowing journeyman employees to share in the profits of print shops they set up. And 70 years ago, San Francisco investment banker and lawyer Louis Kelso pioneered the first modern ESOP to enable employees of  Peninsula Newspapers to buy out their retiring owners.

Since then, some form of employee ownership, including ESOPs and ESOP-like structures, cover practically every global region, with a presence in countries ranging from Australia to Zimbabwe. The Business Research Company, a market research firm, estimates that global revenue for firms providing ESOP formation and administration services, a good barometer of underlying ESOP activity, reached $2.12 billion in 2025 and expects it to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% to $3.32 billion in 2030.

Globally, North America was the largest region in the ESOP market in 2025, but the Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the decade ahead. Expansion in that region reflects increased adoption and broader inclusion – with 78% of Asia startups offering ESOPs in 2024 and one in three offering them to all employees.

Several factors are propelling the ESOP momentum. Among them are innovations in structuring and administration, which make an ESOP more accessible for companies of every size, as well as favorable tax benefits and regulatory support.

Another major factor is the desire to attract and retain star talent and, more generally, improve employee engagement. No wonder: Gallup just reported that employee engagement in the U.S. in 2024 fell to its lowest level in a decade, with just 31% of employees engaged and only 17% of employees actively engaged, particularly among workers under 35 years of age. Employee detachment declined by two percentage points in only one year.

Notably, startup and small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, are fueling the ESOP growth. This reflects lower entry barriers, innovative share-based ESOP initiatives, and the growing need to attract retain talent and boost employee motivation – as well as burgeoning EO state organizations in nine states and a city-based program in Newark. Generally, while these centers differ in their funding, strategy, and methods, they share a mission: to encourage adoption of employee-owned business models through education and outreach.

Looking internationally, what we’re finding as veteran ESOP advisers is that a growing number of companies with global operations want all their employees, wherever based, to enjoy the benefits of employee ownership. They consider employee ownership a strategic means of enhancing employee engagement and retention and of creating employee wealth. For example, Italy-based oil company Eni SpA launched a new ESOP plan in April 2024 that extended to over 65,000 employees across 62 countries.

Multinational ESOP-like programs are structured in several key ways that together make it increasingly easy to offer employee ownership to all their employees regardless of location. And countries are helping. Bulgaria, for example, introduced a new type of commercial entity known as the Variable Capital Company to enable share options to employees, and Romania applies a preferential tax treatment for equity plans that meet certain conditions.

Generally, a U.S. company with global operations that seeks to transcend borders will implement a structure with these key elements:

  • A U.S. ESOP for its U.S. employees.
  • A global equity plan that provides one umbrella plan, which is then customized by country.
  • Localized grant rules that follow local tax and securities laws and are withholding-compliant.
  • Equity vehicles per each specific country that might include options, restricted stock units, appreciation rights, employee stock purchase plans, and the like.
  • Still, many companies just handle any stock appreciation via a bonus since country-by-country compliance is extremely difficult.

This structure ensures that non-U.S. employees track the opportunity of domestic employees to benefit financially from their company’s success, and helps integrate the global workforce into the multinationals’ ownership practices and cultures.

Further, it can create meaningful competitive advantage. A June 2024 Rutgers University study, for instance, found that executives of U.S.-domiciled multinational ESOP-owned organizations reported numerous benefits in terms of employee productivity, recruitment and retention, corporate reputation, and customer loyalty. And in the EMEA region, these employee-owned S Corporations appear to derive a competitive edge in international markets.

For me, with over 30 years of advising on ESOPs, the current momentum is particularly gratifying: It underscores the growing desire to provide employees with the clear benefits of sharing in the ownership of their employer.  Plus, it adds ammunition to a prediction I made several years ago that this would be the Decade of the ESOP.