Employee Share Ownership In Türkiye: A Growing Trend

Employee share ownership is widely common in the United States ("US") and Europe. In the US, where there is a long-standing culture of employee share ownership programs supported by tax incentives, approximately 18% of employees have some form of ownership stake in the company where they work by 2021¹. According to European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES), by 2023, 95% of large European companies have employee share ownership².

There is no comprehensive statistical study on the current state of employee share ownership in Türkiye. However, it is apparent that Türkiye is significantly behind the US and Europe in terms of employee share ownership. This may be attributed to several factors, including the relatively limited number of publicly held companies, a lack of awareness regarding the benefits of employee share ownership, and inadequate legislations encouraging employee share ownership.