A major theoretical objection against employee share ownership is that workers are exposed to excessive financial risk. Theory posits that 10 to 15% of a typical worker’s wealth portfolio can be prudently invested in employer stock. The authors analyze employee share ownership in US family portfolios using the 2004 to 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. Overall, 15.3% of families with private-sector employees held employer stock in 2016, and one in six of these families exceeded the 15% threshold. Employee share ownership appears to generally add to, rather than substitute for, both pension and overall wealth. Employee share owners express higher risk tolerance and financial knowledge and greater understanding of the value of diversification. While financial risk does not appear to be a substantial problem for most employee share owners, a small minority may face excessive risk, and the authors suggest approaches to reduce such risk.

反对员工持股的主要理论反对意见是，工人面临过度的财务风险。理论认为，可以谨慎地将普通工人财富组合的10％至15％投资于雇主股票。作者使用2004年至2016年《消费者金融调查》分析了美国家庭资产组合中的雇员股份所有权。总体而言，2016年有私人部门雇员的家庭中有15.3％拥有雇主股份，其中六分之一的家庭超过了15％的门槛。雇员的股份所有权似乎通常会增加而不是替代养老金和整体财富。员工持股者表现出更高的风险承受能力和财务知识，并且对多元化的价值有了更深入的了解。尽管对于大多数员工股份所有者来说，财务风险似乎并不是一个大问题，