How employee shares can revitalise workers and firms
The solution to stagnant wages lies not in revolution but, at least in part, in a tweaked form of capitalism that elevates the role of employees from functionaries to partial owners of businesses.
Conspicuous in its absence from the recent Jobs and Skills Summit was any meaningful discussion of employee share ownership. If sweeping new rules that came into effect on October 1 are to realise their potential, Australia needs to inculcate an employee ownership culture to match world-leading jurisdictions such as the United States and Britain.
Across the globe, the divide between capital and labour has never been starker. While asset prices have surged in recent decades, wages have remained relatively stagnant.
