Address Wealth Inequality Through an Ownership Culture
RESOLVED: Repligen Corporation ("Company") shareholders request the Board's Compensation
Committee ("Committee") issue a report annually assessing the distribution of stock-based incentives
throughout the workforce (such as but not limited to performance share units, employee stock
purchase plans, restricted stock units, and options). The report should include a matrix, sorted by
EEO-1 employee classification or another appropriate classification scheme with four or more
categories chosen by the Committee, showing aggregate amounts of stock ownership granted and
utilized by all U.S Company employees and including associated voting power, if any. The Committee
should issue the report before or concurrent with the next annual proxy statement.
Supporting Statement: Our Company recognizes stock ownership as an incentive for directors and named executives, reporting annually on utilization. We ask our Company to track and disclose similar information and associate voting power for all U.S. employees using meaningful classifications.
Widespread employee ownership is correlated with better firm performance, fewer layoffs, better
employee compensation and benefits, higher median household wealth, longer median job tenure,
and reduced racial and gender wealth gaps.1 It also has a long history of bipartisan support.2 Our
Company should educate and promote ownership plans and progress towards an engaged employee
ownership culture.3
Wealth inequality in the United States has increased dramatically,4 is widely recognized as a
significant social policy issue,5 and brings many problems, such as political polarization.6 Employee
ownership is key to addressing this social policy in a bipartisan manner.7
Providing stock ownership incentives to boards and executives but not to all U.S. company
employees has led to glaring inequality. Our Company's "pay ratio" is relatively small, 1 to 45. A similar ratio comparing stock ownership by named executives with those of typical U.S. employees
would be much higher at our Company and nationally at other companies.
From 1973 to 2018, inflation-adjusted wages for nonsupervisory American workers were flat.
Meanwhile, a dollar's worth of stock grew (in real terms) to $14.09. Hourly wages stagnated. Income
from capital ownership accelerated. The top 10% of American households earned 97% of capital
gains. Typical White families own nearly 10x the average Black family. Single women own only 36%
of what typical men own. That gap is greater for women of color.8 Strengthening employee ownership
would help address these inequities,9 while generating higher value for all shareholders.
Employee engagement and trust are crucial to success. Expanding the Committee's perspective
beyond executive compensation would give them "a better grasp on how human talent matters for the
company's business strategy and operations."10 Our Company could benefit shareholders,
employees, and the economy by leading on this issue.
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1 https://secureservercdn.net/192.169.220.85/11l.986.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WhitePaper-
TurningEmployeesIntoOwners.pdf and https://www.nceo.org/article/research-employee-ownership
2 https://www.thirdway.org/report/having-a-stake-evidence-and-implications-for-broad-based-employee-stock-ownership-and-profitsharing
3 https://smlr.rutgers.edu/faculty-research-engagement/institute-study-employee-ownership-and-profit-sharing
4 https://inequality.org/facts/wealth-inequality/
5 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/
6 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2649215
7 https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/512413-employee-ownership-the-wealth-gap-and-the-current-crisis
8 https://ownershipamerica.org/the-problem/
9 https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/Institute_Employee_Ownership/rutgerskelloggreport_april2019.pdf
10 https://www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer/belief-driven-employee/new-employee-employer-compact