A worker collective is a form of worker cooperative that utilizes consensus decision making and has a non-hierarchical authority structure. Typically all members of the collective are paid the same wage. Worker cooperatives can be formed as new start-ups, or as conversions of an existing firm. The industries of the cooperatives in this listing vary widely and include manufacturing, food products and restaurants, services, shipbuilding, computer services, retail sales, child care, education, and more. Half of the cooperatives include every member on the board of directors so that all members act as primary policy decision makers.
Membership varies from three to two hundred sixty and averages twenty-seven.
Fifteen percent of the responding cooperatives have no paid employees because they are organized to provide charitable or advocacy work. An ESOP is an employee benefit plan where employees are allocated company stock, usually according to wages or length of service. Voting rights, when they exist, are based on shares owned rather than the cooperative standard of one vote per member. All rights reserved.