We have been employee owned for about 10 years now.
To clarify what employee owned means,,,You get stock in the company by giving them years of service. Not much different then owning stock in AT&T you have no say in how the company gets run. there is no investment from the employee except sweat equity.
Your daily efforts make the company money and in return you get the benefit of rising stock price.
It has been great for us and our employees. last year my stock value increased more than my yearly salary. In effect i received more than a 100% pay boost for the year.
The other catch is that you cannot touch the money until you quit or retire. If you quit before retirement age you need to transfer that money into an IRA or it will be taxed plus penalties.