When the Great Recession hit, I got laid off from my job as a picker at a medical supplier. It took me awhile to get back on my feet and land a position as a machine operator at a Suwanee manufacturer that makes parts for the aviation industry.
So you could imagine my concern when COVID hit. Air travel ground to a halt, and our business dried up. I worried I’d lose my job and have to start all over again.
But unemployment never came.
Instead of being laid off, I moved temporarily to one of our factories in Texas, where a space project was still going strong.
The same went for my colleagues. Some went to manufacture COVID tests. Others made gowns for nurses.
A big reason we kept our jobs was because we owned the company. That’s right, my employer, Web Industries, is 100% employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan, a retirement plan that allows companies to share ownership with workers.
We know that our employees are what keep us going, so we did everything we could to keep folks on the job. We were all team players to help us through a difficult time.
We weren’t the only ones.
It turns out employee-owned companies around the country were three to four times more likely to retain employees during the pandemic than non-ESOP companies, according to one research study.
I was nearly a decade into my job at the time, and it was just the latest example of how employee ownership had changed, and come to define, my life.
I remember back to the interview, 16 years ago, when I first heard about the ESOP. They explained it to me, but it went over my head. I was 31 and retirement was the last thing on my mind. I was just looking for a steady paycheck.
But when I got hired and hit the shop floor, I could tell right away that this place was different. I was used to a dusty, overheated warehouse, but the temperature was comfortable and everything was pristine. If there was a pallet out of place, someone would pick it up.
That was just the start.
I also noticed that everyone seemed to be older. All my coworkers had 25 or 30 years on the job. These older gentlemen came to me and said, “Man, we always see you with a smile on your face and we want to take you under our arm and show you the ropes.”
Nothing like that had ever happened to me at work before. But they owned the company and knew that me doing my job well had a direct effect on their wallets.
I started developing my work habits from these older colleagues and also started to understand the power of the ESOP. “You know, you’re going to be able to retire and be real comfortable for the rest of your life,” they told me. And that always stayed in my head.
The balance on my first ESOP statement wasn’t much to write home about, but as the years started going by, I realized those men were right. I got the second one and the number was a little bigger. And then I got my third one. Ok, it’s looking pretty good. And then the fourth statement, I said, “Well, this is something.”
By Year 6, it climbed to six figures. And that really keeps you going. It makes you want to work and work hard because you feel like an owner. You know you’re an owner, so you’re going to see the value of your work.
At 47, I’m now the older one on the shop floor. I want to do everything I can to mentor younger workers and help them experience the benefits of being an employee-owner.
Like those who helped me, I’m now showing the younger generation the ropes. They might not be thinking of retirement, but I’m helping them think like an owner and understand that if they work hard, it will directly affect their futures.
I also think about my future. I never thought I’d be able to retire, but I’m creeping closer to that age, and it’s a huge relief to know that ESOP is there to make a secure retirement possible.
For too many Americans, that’s not the case. According to the Federal Reserve, 28% of adults have no retirement savings at all. The Century Foundation reports nearly half of all Americans have no access to a retirement plan through work.
The retirement crisis is particularly acute for Black families like mine. An overwhelming majority of Black working-age households — 62% — do not own assets in a retirement account, compared with 37% of white households, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Three out of 4 Black households age 25-64 have less than $10,000 in retirement savings, compared to 1 out of 2 white households.
Black families are also much less likely to own stocks than white ones. In 2022, two-thirds of white families owned stocks, compared with 39% of Black families, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances.
We can change that reality with more ESOPs, and that’s why I’m lending my voice to a new coalition that seeks to expand employee ownership to every company in Georgia — where there are only 169 ESOPs — and the rest of the country too.
That might seem like a long road, but I know about long roads. I went from being unemployed to owning a company. I built wealth and a secure future for my family.
Everyone should have that opportunity.
Credit: Archie Reed/contributed
Credit: Archie Reed/contributed
Archie Reed is a machine operator and employee-owner at Web Industries in Suwanee.
Credit: (Courtesy Web Industries, Inc.)
Credit: (Courtesy Web Industries, Inc.)
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