New National Polling Released September 2026
Most Americans have stopped believing the American Dream is within reach. Employee ownership brings back their hope, especially for young people.
Americans are frustrated with the economy and believe the American Dream is increasingly out of reach. New polling from Echelon Insights finds that pessimism can be countered by an economy where employees share in the value of the company where they work.
78%
say that if more American companies shared ownership with employees through ESOPs, it would make the American Dream achievable for more Americans.
Key findings
- 49%say there is less opportunity to get ahead than there was 50 years ago
- 84%support broad-based employee ownership once it is described
- 83%say an ESOP would help a company's employees get ahead financially
- 78%support government incentives for companies that share ownership
Make a guess first.
Out of every 100 American voters, how many say the American Dream — that if you work hard you can get ahead — is achievable for most Americans today?
45 / 100
?
Set your guess, then reveal. Most readers guess high.
The mood
Americans have little faith in the economy.
71%
are dissatisfied with current economic conditions in the United States.
49% say there is less opportunity for the average person to get ahead than there was 50 years ago, and just 31% say there is more. Only 22% expect more opportunity a few years from now.
“How satisfied are you with each of the following in the United States today?”
% total satisfied
% total satisfied
Cost of living17%
Current economic conditions27%
How income and wealth are distributed27%
Availability of good jobs39%
Economic pessimism runs deepest among the young.
Voters aged 18–34 are nearly twice as likely as those over 65 to say the average person doesn't have much chance to really get ahead — and they have the least faith that the American Dream is within reach, for the country or for themselves.
“The average person doesn't have much chance to really get ahead.”
60%
agree, among voters aged 18–34
The Dream is achievable for most Americans20%
They will achieve it themselves38%
Satisfied with their own financial security34%
The shift
Then we asked them to imagine something different.
The same voters answered the same questions a second time — this time about an economy where more American companies shared ownership with their employees through ESOPs. The two “company cares” figures are among voters employed by a business or company. Drag the handle to see what changes.
The economy as it is today
22%
expect more opportunity to get ahead a few years from now
29%
say the American Dream is achievable for most Americans
52%
say the economic system works well for Americans like them
46%
of employees feel their company cares if they get ahead
If more companies shared ownership through ESOPs
61%
would expect more opportunity to get ahead
78%
say the Dream would be achievable for more Americans
74%
would say the system works well for Americans like them
80%
would feel their company cared if it offered an ESOP
Today
With ESOPs
At work
Ownership changes what a job feels like.
Fewer than half of employed voters feel the company they work for cares about their ability to get ahead financially. If that company offered an ESOP, 80% say they would feel it cared — a 34-point swing on the most personal question in the survey.
83% say a company having an ESOP would help its employees get ahead financially, and about three in four call ESOPs a good idea once they learn what one is.
46%
80%
Feel that way about their job today
Would feel that way if it offered an ESOP
In their own words.
Asked in their own words why employee ownership is a good idea, voters landed on the same handful of reasons — a win-win for the company and the people who work there.
Open-ended responses, coded by Echelon Insights, among those who said ESOPs are a good idea. Ordered from most to least frequently mentioned.
Employee ownership is a good idea, voters said, because it…
- gives people a reason to care about the work
- puts real money in employees' hands
- gives them a stake in what they build
- spreads the wealth more fairly
- builds security for later on
The politics
78% want government to make employee ownership easier.
Support crosses party lines, and 69% say a politician backing ESOP tax incentives would be signaling that they care about how much opportunity average Americans have to get ahead.
A policy where government would incentivize companies to offer broad-based employee ownership
Support78%
Oppose10%
Unsure12%
73%
also support expanding the tax breaks companies receive for contributing to an ESOP
What the numbers look like in real life
Meet Ronnie Kleinjans, an employee owner who has lived these poll numbers.
Growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ronnie’s parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles had jobs with union pension plans at companies like General Motors. But by the time he entered the workforce, those jobs had disappeared.
“I didn’t have the same choices as those who came before me,” he says. But he got a lifeline—and a renewed belief in the American Dream—when the company was bought by Indiana-based Jasper Engines & Transmissions, one of the country’s largest ESOPs.
Overnight, Ronnie became an owner, “transforming my job into something closer to one my grandparents might have had,” he wrote. For the first time, he was able to imagine the kind of future he once thought would forever be out of reach.
Read other real-life stories of how ESOPs are reviving hope for young workers.
Lehigh Valley Business Journal
On Labor Day, let's expand employee ownership to renew Gen Z's faith in the American Dream
By Nick Wee
MinnPost
As a Gen Zer, I wasn't sure how to build my future until I became an employee owner
By Emily Sabol
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
This Labor Day, let's make more Wisconsin workers owners
By Marcease Warren
“By giving Americans more of a chance to bet on themselves, there may be hope of building an economy that people can have faith in once more.”
Kristen Soltis AndersonFounding Partner, Echelon Insights
Read Kristen’s op-ed on how expanding employee ownership can restore Gen Z’s faith in our economy
Methodology and data
Echelon Insights conducted this survey on behalf of Expanding ESOPs, fielded online Oct. 11–15, 2025 in English among N=1,024 registered voters nationwide, drawn from the Cint sample exchange and matched to the L2 voter file. Weighted to population benchmarks for U.S. registered voters. Margin of sampling error ±3.4 percentage points.