What if there were a way to run a business that generated lasting wealth for employees and helped anchor companies in the U.S.? What if communities, entrepreneurs, and lawmakers joined efforts to promote these businesses as a way of retaining jobs and creating strong local economies? It sounds impossible but businesses that are owned by employees have all these benefits and efforts to create more of them are gaining serious momentum throughout New York.

With income inequality in the United States at record high levels, employee ownership is increasingly being lauded as a practical, market-based solution. Employee-owned companies keep jobs at home and help smooth wealth inequality, cementing a strong economy overall. And it really works: Not only do employee-owned companies consistently outperform industry benchmarks, but research from the National Center for Employee Ownership shows that employee owners have 92 percent higher household net worth than non-employee owners, earn 33 percent higher wages, and are far less likely to be laid off.

Companies owned by their employees are more widespread than you might think. Nationally, there are at least 7,000 of these firms in nearly every major industry, sector, and region of the U.S. In New York, many employee-owned businesses are recognized industry leaders and household brands, such as Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) in the Bronx, and Chobani yogurt, in Norwich, which each employ more than 2,000 workers. Though structured differently, both offer employees an opportunity to share in the fruits of their labor which, in turn, makes workers invested in the company's success. It's not just fair, its smart: Extensive research shows that participatory employee ownership contributes to greater productivity and firm stability.

Perhaps that's why New Yorkers are getting behind employee ownership in a big way. Just last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Promoting Employee-Owned Businesses Act, establishing an advisory panel on employee-owned enterprises within the Division of Small Business Services. Last year, Rochester spun off an employee-owned business development organization called OWN Rochester, which has already launched its first startup company; it's also promoting employee ownership as an exit strategy for retiring business owners.

An hour west, a group of citizen leaders in Buffalo have teamed up with the local Small Business Development Center to build Cooperation Buffalo — a cooperative business incubator with strong ties to the local community.

These examples follow New York City's investment of close to $5 million in similar initiatives. Meanwhile, Rutgers University has recently created the New York/New Jersey Employee Ownership Center, whose mission is to strengthen New Jersey and New York's economy by retaining and expanding the local workforce though employee ownership. And these are only a few examples; communities such as Syracuse, Ithaca, Utica, and Poughkeepsie have all also explored strategies to promote employee ownership.

At the policy level, lawmakers are also stepping up. Legislators like Sean Ryan of Buffalo have advocated policies that would make it easier to create and operate employee-owned companies in New York. U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has co-sponsored a federal legislative package that would fund employee ownership education and technical assistance and establish public financing for founders who want to sell their companies to the employees that helped build them.

All of this adds up to some serious momentum for employee ownership that puts New York at the forefront of the employee ownership movement and positions New Yorkers to prosper.

A New York economy where every city had a Chobani or a CHCA would represent a fundamentally different kind of economy. More families would enjoy greater financial stability but also renewed hope. At Once Again Nut Butter, an employee-owned food manufacturer and the largest private employer in the town of Nunda, single mother Lisa Gibson-Nicholson credits her job with providing both. Once Again provided a means to finance her children's college education, she explained to Gillibrand on a recent visit: "All my dreams and hopes that I had started with and never thought I'd have, have come true here."

Those hopes can be fulfilled for more people, if employee ownership is leveraged as the practical, proven, and ready to deploy tool that it is. New York is showing the nation how it's done.

Jessica Rose is CFO and director of employee ownership programs at The Democracy Collaborative.