Today, we are sharing an essay from our partner Kristen Soltis Anderson about research she did on American perceptions of opportunity and employee stock ownership programs.
Laura Delgado was a single mom of a two-year-old working at a fast-food restaurant when a new opportunity came her way. She didn’t have a high school diploma, but a friend who believed in her nudged her to apply for a job at an employee-owned aircraft parts distributor, The hours were better for managing childcare for her son, the environment supportive and encouraging, and over the years, she found her way through the ranks at the company, moving from packager to picker to working in transportation and trade compliance.
I had an opportunity to speak with Laura recently, where she told me her story. Fifteen years have passed. Laura now is a supervisor of a warehouse. Her son is 17, and is old enough to tell his Mom he’s proud of her. She credits the culture of her company and its employee-owned structure as a big reason she’s had this journey and feels secure in the future of her children – both for her son and her new 8-month-old baby.
In a moment where so many people tell me in surveys and focus groups that they have doubts about whether people really can move up and get ahead these days, I wondered: what had made Laura’s story possible, and how can it be possible for everyone?
Last July, an op-ed by Emi Nietfield about Generation Z and their relationship to work went viral in my world, asserting that those in Gen Z – those born in the latter 1990s and early 2000s – no longer feel like working hard pays off. “Gen Z-ers are often accused of shrugging off work — in fact, they say so themselves — and who can blame them?” writes Nietfield. “Now, they’re entering what’s widely called the worst job market in years. Almost half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. The cost of living has soared; buying a house feels impossible.”
None of this was a surprise to me. I’ve been hearing for years, in focus groups and surveys, that Americans are no longer sure that the next generation will be better off. People of all ages aren’t certain that they benefit from a so-called rising tide. In my data, I consistently find that Americans, especially young ones, are increasingly skeptical of the idea that opportunity is out there for those who work hard.
In a survey I conducted last year, when voters were asked to choose whether they felt “There is plenty of opportunity in America today — anyone who works hard can go as far as they want” or “There is not much opportunity in America today — the average person doesn’t have much chance to really get ahead,” respondents were somewhat split, but huge generational differences lurked beneath the surface. Six-in-ten young Americans in that age range chose the more downbeat response, declaring most people just can’t advance these days.
This also shows up in data about how young people feel about the American economic system and the entire concept of the American Dream. In research conducted by my firm, Echelon Insights, this summer, I found that those under age 35 were the least likely to think “the American Dream exists for everyone, including me.” And while I often find voters split on whether capitalism is good or bad, I also find young Americans intrigued by socialism, finding it an idea worth exploring – a worrisome but understandable impulse from a generation for whom the status quo feels broken.
In a culture where young people look at an economy that feels rigged against them, is there anything that can potentially turn the tide? What, if anything, can businesses do to create opportunity and reignite faith in our economic system for a new generation?
One potential pathway is expanding a culture of ownership, inviting younger workers to share in the success of their employers. In my research for Expanding ESOPs, a group dedicated to growing the number of businesses that participate in employee stock ownership programs (ESOPs), I found very few Americans had ever even heard of such a program. But when broad-based employee ownership is described, people are widely supportive. And when an ESOP is explained in greater detail, three-quarters of voters, including 73% of young voters, say they think ESOPs are a good idea. When we go deeper and ask why, the responses include a mix of benefits to the employer as well as to the employee, including boosted incentives for productivity within a company’s workforce and stronger financial outcomes for the workers themselves.
But what struck me about the data isn’t just that people liked the idea of offering employees a piece of the company they work for. They also said making such a structure more widely available could boost opportunity overall. Some 61% of voters, including a majority of the young, said that “if more American companies shared ownership with their employees through employee stock ownership plans” there would be “more opportunity for the average American to get ahead.”
Though there was plenty of skepticism of markets and corporate America throughout my data, there was also a clear belief that this approach could create a system that looks more like what they’d hoped for: a world where hard work does pay. When I asked if people felt like a system where more companies shared ownership with their employees through something like an ESOP, 78% said they felt it would make the American Dream more achievable for more Americans. Notably, after a survey full of pessimism from Gen Z, there was no generation gap on that question; young Americans suddenly saw a way for the American Dream to be made reality through more shared ownership.
One ray of hope persists throughout Gen-Z’s loss of faith in systems and institutions. For all that young Americans may feel downbeat about our current economic situation and system, they do still believe in themselves. In my surveys, I ask people if they feel they’ve achieved their financial goals. While very few young Americans say they have, most - 60% - say they expect they will someday. Give them a culture where they can thrive, and they’re ready to do so.
When I spoke with Laura, she said “I had the opportunity to learn, and know that I’m capable of a lot more, because that’s one thing that [my company] has: that culture. Because we’re employee-owned, it’s like, you are capable of so much that I didn’t know I was capable of.”
By giving Americans more of a chance to bet on themselves, to own a piece of their hard work through shared ownership with their employer, there may be hope of building an economy that people can have faith in once more.