Editorial & Advertiser disclosure

Global Banking & Finance Review® is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

Home > Business > Employee equity should be a legal right, workers and business leaders agree

Employee equity should be a legal right, workers and business leaders agree

Published by linker 5

Posted on December 22, 2020

5 min read

Last updated: January 21, 2026

Happy business partners celebrating employee equity and ownership - Global Banking & Finance Review — This image depicts happy business partners embracing in a workplace, symbolizing the growing agreement among workers and leaders on the importance of employee equity as a legal right. It reflects the article's focus on the need for fairer wealth distribution in business.

Founders, CEOs and employees aligned on businesses’ role in making society fairer
Pandemic has made it more likely bosses will offer or increase employee ownership
Businesses leveraging equity to cut costs and save jobs during Covid crisis
Employees willing to wait just 3.87 years on average to cash out of their shareholdings

In a year that has seen the wealth gap widen to a chasm in the wake of Covid-19, attitudes are hardening among both workers and bosses around the need to share the fruits of business success more widely, according to a new study by equity management fintech, Capdesk.

The research, which surveyed employees, founders and CEOs at private equity-backed UK startups and scale-ups, found the strength of feeling is such that the vast majority of employees (80%) and business owners (78%) actually agree companies should be required by law to offer equity share schemes to their workforces.

Christian Gabriel, CEO and Co-Founder of Capdesk, says: “We know the employee equity drumbeat has been growing louder but we were still pleased to see the extent of enthusiasm uncovered in this research, in particular how closely aligned management is to its employees.”

The Covid effect: Build back fairer

Founders and CEOs (94%) feel even stronger than employees (90%) that business has a responsibility to play a leading role in making society fairer, with 89% indicating the pandemic has made them more focused on how their own company can directly contribute to this cause.

What’s more, they are willing to follow through on that belief with over three quarters (77%) saying the Covid crisis has made them more likely to offer, or increase, employee equity.

Gabriel says: “After an extremely challenging year, it is encouraging to see something positive emerge: a fundamental shift towards distributing business wealth with more of those responsible for creating it.”

Unlocking equity in crisis

The economically devastating impact of the past nine months did not spare the fast-growth sector, with a significant proportion of business leaders revealing they were forced to take tough decisions to survive:

Major cost-cutting, including employee rewards and benefits (33%)
Furloughing staff (28%)
Freezing promotions and salary increases (26%)
Freezing hiring (24%)
Reducing salaries (19%)
Cutting jobs (18%)

However, as cashflow dried up a sizable number were able to leverage company equity to offset the austerity imposed on employees and even avoid the most drastic action. 42% of businesses offered equity share options to newly promoted employees in place of salary rises, while 32% used equity to save jobs by agreeing salary reductions in return for share options.

For their part, employees have displayed an understanding of the challenging economic situation with many open to receiving increased equity as compensation. Half (49%) say they would take shares in place of salary increases for promotion, while 41% would accept a pay cut if equity is offered instead.

Gabriel says: “Leaders are not only recognising the power of unlocking equity to drive their business and get through an economic crisis, but also the positive impact these actions can have on wider society.”

Shortening the road to cash out

Despite the popular notion that an IPO is the ultimate goal for startup employees to cash out on their equity, a relatively small proportion (13%) actually see this as a realistic route to liquidity.

Much more likely in workers’ minds is:

The company buying back shares (32%)
Selling shares to an investor or board member (32%)
Selling shares to a third party on the secondaries market (31%)
Acquisition, or merger, with another company (25%)

And with an established trend of equity-backed businesses now staying private for longer, it is perhaps no surprise there appears a growing impatience among employees to realise their shareholdings sooner.

The research reveals over half (57%) would wait no longer than 4 years to cash out, with nearly a third (31%) unwilling to wait more than 2 years. On average, employee equity holders are willing to wait just 3.87 years to cash out.

Meanwhile, if given the option, nearly three quarters (74%) claim they would sell some or all of their shares tomorrow.

Gabriel says: “This finding reinforces the case for industry collaboration in creating easily accessible secondaries markets, with the goal of enabling employees and business owners to achieve liquidity faster.”

The case for employee equity

The findings point to a rock solid business and employer branding case for companies that offer employee equity share schemes, and risks for those that don’t.

80% of workers polled said they would prefer to work for a business that offers an employee equity share scheme, while 79% would be more committed to, and work harder for, a company that does.

On the flip side, workers believe a company not offering equity sends a bad message to potential recruits. Employees responded that it indicated a company was:

Not purpose-driven and would be difficult to get behind mission (32%)
Uninterested in contributing to a better society and only interested in profit (31%)
Hierarchical and wouldn’t treat employees equally (31%)
Uncaring about employees and wouldn’t be a good place to work (26%)

Meanwhile, the most common reasons leaders who offer employee equity cite for doing so are: it motivates and incentivises (34%), it’s the fair and right thing to do (32%), it boosts business performance (30%) and it attracts and retains talent (30%).

Some other interesting rationales included – due to investor pressure (24%), to release liquidity to partially exit business (22%) or, simply, to not look bad (10%).