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Employee-owned corporations are corporations owned in whole or in part by their employees. Employees are usually given a share of the corporation after a certain length of employment or they can buy shares at any time. A corporation owned entirely by its employees (a worker cooperative) will not, therefore, have its shares sold on public stock markets. Employee-owned corporations often adopt profit sharing where the profits of the corporation are shared with the employees. These types of corporations also often have boards of directors elected directly by the employees. In the USA, employee-owned corporations are often created through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). A notable example of one type of employee-owned corporation is the UK firm John Lewis.