Workers Will Become NYC Business Owners Under New Program

NEW YORK CITY — A new city program could dispel the worry workers at small businesses across the city feel when mom-and-pop proprietors retire.

Instead of looking for another job, the Employee Ownership NYC initiative aims to make workers the new owners of the very businesses where they've long worked.

Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the program during his daily conference on Wednesday, calling it an effort to "change the rules of the game" and give working New Yorkers more control over their lives.

"Employee Ownership NYC — this is going to be a systematic effort to ensure that employees have an opportunity to own," he said. "And that particularly in communities of color, we shift that painful reality where there hasn't been enough ownership and enough capital built and maintained in communities because of structural racism."

The program will give owners and employees access to up to $10,000 worth of services, education and support.

A rapid response hotline and site called Owner To Owners is already up to help proprietors explore the potential of selling their company to their employees at a fair market price.

Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson said business closures because of COVID-19 have come atop a looming wave of more shuttered storefronts from aging business owners who want to retire.

And 85 percent of those aging owners don't have a succession plan, Thompson said. Of those looking to sell, 80 percent can't find a buyer, he said.

"There's a real chance that these businesses will simply disappear and even more people will lose jobs," Thompson said.

The alternative to shuttering those businesses completely is employee ownership, Thompson said. Workers turned owners work harder and have more economic opportunities, he said.

Not only that, workers of color under employee ownership make 30 percent more income and roughly 80 percent higher household wealth than workers at other kinds of businesses, Thompson said.

Four community-based organizations — Democracy at Work Institute, The Working World, the ICA Group, and the Business Outreach Center Network — will provide support, according to release.

Owners and employees can find more information by visiting owner2owners.nyc or calling 646-363-6592.

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch