La participation aux bénéfices aux Etats-Unis Profit Sharing in the United States of America

Sommaire

La participation des travailleurs aux bénéfices dans les entreprises nord-américaines est un phénomène que l'auteur a étudié dans une thèse de doctorat présentée en 1958 à l'Université de Paris. Ici, après avoir ébauché l'arrière-plan historique de cette mesure, il en explique la nature, les différentes espèces de régimes auxquels elle a donné lieu et enfin, il essaie de tracer un bilan. Un autre article du même auteur paraîtra dans notre prochain numéro où seront exposées les attitudes des syndicats ouvriers.

Summary

Profit sharing is becoming an important practice in American business. According to optimistic but still realistic estimates, profit sharing plans would reach the total of nearly 20,000. Every month, about a hundred new plans are put into effect.

A good deal of research work and literature is concerned with profit sharing in the United States. Top scholars, serious organizations such as the « National Industrial Conference Board » and the « Industrial Relations Counselors », and the U.S. Government have steadily surveyed profit sharing. Since 1947, the « Council of Profit Sharing Industries », a private association sponsored by businessmen, is promoting this idea with great success and has created the « Profit Sharing Research Foundation », a dynamic and efficient institution. All these facts are an indication that profit sharing is a big thing.

While one can find traces of profit sharing experiences as far back as the last decade of the eighteenth century, this idea has actually drawn considerable public interest and developed into a big-sized movement only in the last twenty years. The Senate investigation of 1938 is undoubtedly one of the most important landmarks in the history of profit sharing. It has focused national attention on this practice and laid the basis for future legislation. The report of the sub-committee was for some time the bestseller of the Government Printing Office.

In the early days and also very lately, there have been instances of favorable labor unions' attitudes towards profit sharing, but generally speaking this idea and practice has been largely promoted by businessmen or by businessminded scholars or organizations. Among the advocates and supporters of profit sharing, a great number have given a considerable amount of emphasis on its virtue of making capitalism available and desirable to all. This was one of the main conclusions of the Senate report. It is also to be found frequently throughout the literature on this subject. The report of the 1956 convention of the « Council of Profit Sharing Industries» is entitled: «Every Man a Capitalist», which surnimarizes the spirit of many promoters and might be considered as a good slogan.

Of course, the majority of stockholders and management representatives are still probably opposed to profit sharing, but the number of those who are becoming interested in this idea or actually putting it into effect in some way is steadily increasing. Most of them have adopted it because they wanted the workers to be more concerned with the results of the business. Many others are looking at it as a group incentive, while some consider it as a device to provide more security to the employees. In this last case, profit sharing is used to finance pension and welfare plans.

Profit sharing is an expression that has been widely used to mean a lot a different practices which, in many cases, have very little to do with true and genuine profit sharing. This confusion is to be found very often throughout the literature on the subject. For instance, the United States Senate, in its 1938 survey, and even the « Council of Profit Sharing Industries » have adopted very loose definitions in order to cover what is usually being considered as such in the industry rather than what should strictly and technically be so designated. Normally, the workers' share should be fixed in advance and be the result of an agreement freely entered into.

There is a great variety of plans which can be put into effect. All the promoters agree on the fact that in each case, the plan should be taylored to meet the particular circumstances. Among all the classifications that have been made, one of them seems to be the most significant and appropriate: the cash profit-sharing and the deferred profit-sharing plans. This latter category prevails in larger companies, while the former one is typical of smaller units. Combined plans are usually found in the medium-sized industry.

The deferred profit-sharing plans have drawn a considerable amount of attention lately. One of their main features is the creation of a huge savings pool in the hands of trust institutions. Some companies use the savings, which in many cases axe built up to a certain extent by workers' contributions, to purchase their own stock or common stock of other companies. This source of finance is becoming more and more important, and it gives trust companies a greater influence.

If such a trend should develop steadily, it is likely that it might have some influence on the economic cycle. In an expansion period, workers' contributions to a trust fund are not used as consumption expenditures but rather as savings for the purpose of investment. Since the workers have usually the right to withdraw the money vested in them only in special circumstances — retirement, lay-offs, sickness etc. — these sums are available when the worker needs them badly and will spend them. Profit sharing thus becomes, to a certain extent, a social security scheme operated on a private basis.

It seems probable that profit sharing will develop in the future, because most of the companies which have put a plan into effect are satisfied with it. One of the most comprehensive surveys made lately has shown that, out of three hundred (300) companies covered, ninety-six of them (96) think that their experience has been a very great success, while 136 others think that it has been successful. So more than three-quarters of these companies feel that their profit-sharing venture has been a success.

It is not likely, however, that profit sharing will ever be an overwhelming practice in American industry. One of the main reasons is that the labor unions have traditionally been either indiqerent or opposed to it. Some recent facts may suggest that this attitude will not be uniform in the future.

Profit sharing in itself is not a bad thing, but what is still more important is to share the wealth as well as possible between stock owners, management representatives, workers and consumers.