[markstos]

When I co-owned a company, we gave employees a share of the profits when we had a good year. Besides seeming like a decent thing to do, the employees were more aligned an incentivize to increase profits to increase potential profit-sharing checks. Also, it's easier to adjust bonuses downward as needed. On the other hand, employees would prefer not have their base-pay cut in down year.

We had good employee retention.

[chrischen]

Don't autoworkers get stock? I remember vaguely in The Simpsons that the nuclear powerplant employees got stock, and Homer stupidly sold his stock.