At Urban Animal's clinics on Capitol Hill, Downtown and in White Center, the people who examine your dog own the practice. Urban Animal calls itself the largest veterinary worker cooperative, run as "a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise" by its veterinary staff.
On Green Lake Drive, Seattle Electric Bike's founder retired in 2022 by selling the shop to its employees, and it now runs as a worker cooperative. A few miles south, the staff at Central Co-op on East Madison own the grocery alongside its shoppers. And the truck that empties your cart in Seattle, Shoreline, Issaquah or Burien may belong to Recology, which has been 100 percent employee-owned since 1986.
This guide collects the businesses in the Seattle area that a household can walk into, hire or buy from, where the people who work there own the company.
Browse the directory
9 businesses, sorted by what you'd use them for. Each one has its own page with what it is, how it's owned, and how we checked.
Worker cooperative 2 ESOP 5 Solidarity co-op 1 Employee-owned, vehicle unstated 1
Three ways to own the place
"Employee-owned" covers a few different arrangements, and the difference shows up in who makes decisions.
In a worker cooperative, the people who work there own the business and govern it on one member, one vote. Washington's own definition, in the 2023 law that created the state's employee ownership program, says worker-owners hold a controlling interest and elect the governing body that way. Urban Animal and Seattle Electric Bike work like this.
In an ESOP, a trust holds company shares for employees as a retirement benefit, and day-to-day management usually looks like any other company. Seattle Gymnastics Academy started its ESOP in 2012 and became fully employee-owned in July 2023. At WinCo Foods, which has 12 stores around Puget Sound, the company gives each employee-owner stock worth 20 percent of what they earned that year. Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon became 100 percent employee-owned in 2020, ten years after Bob Moore set up its ESOP. Litehouse in Sandpoint, Idaho sold its first 30 percent to employees in 2006 and became 100 percent employee-owned at the end of 2014.
Central Co-op is a third kind. In 2015 its members voted to become a solidarity cooperative with both worker and consumer ownership, and the National Center for Employee Ownership reported that members and employees each hold half. Workers buy shares, own the stores and help govern them, and so do shoppers.
Employee ownership trusts, which hold a company permanently for its workers with no shares to sell, are a newer model, and this round turned up none among Seattle household businesses. Stock options and grants at large companies are left out, because they don't change who controls the business.
Why Seattle's picture looks the way it does
When people in Seattle say "co-op," they usually mean REI, PCC or their credit union. Those are consumer cooperatives, owned by the people who shop or bank there, and they fill most of the King County entries on the Northwest Cooperative Development Center's 2026 map of Pacific Northwest co-ops. Worker-owned storefronts are a much shorter list.
The region's employee ownership is concentrated in firms most households never deal with directly. Seattle's Harris Group has been majority owned by its ESOP since 2007. Bellevue's Wood Harbinger has been 100 percent employee-owned since 1990. In Puyallup, engineering firm Parametrix reached full employee ownership in 1999, and vehicle climate-system maker Red Dot is 100 percent employee-owned. Geotechnical engineers Shannon & Wilson are 100 percent employee-owned, contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis describes its staff as employee-owners, and Charlie's Produce, which supplies restaurants and grocers from Seattle, calls itself an employee-owned, independent produce company. These anchors employ a lot of people, and they show employee ownership is ordinary business here, even if it rarely has a storefront.
The support for small conversions sits mostly outside the city. The Northwest Cooperative Development Center works from Olympia, and the six caregiver-owned home care co-ops it helped build are based in Bellingham, Anacortes, Port Townsend, Port Angeles and Olympia, plus a new one in Yakima County, with none in King, Pierce, Snohomish or Kitsap. Project Equity's only Washington program is in Bellingham.
State policy has come and gone. Washington law has a chapter for employee cooperative corporations, and in 2023 the Legislature passed a bill without a single no vote that created a state employee ownership program and a B&O tax credit covering half of conversion costs, up to $25,000 for co-ops and trusts and $100,000 for ESOPs. The Department of Commerce says the program ended June 30, 2025, with awarded credits usable through June 30, 2026, and it is preparing a request to the Legislature to restore funding.
What you can do with this
Shop. The directory is organized by what you need, and several entries are part of a regular week: groceries at Central Co-op or a Puget Sound WinCo, Bob's Red Mill and Litehouse from the grocery shelf, and a vet visit at Urban Animal. If you live in a Recology service city, your trash pickup already counts, and the Recology Stores in Shoreline, Issaquah, Burien, Bothell, Redmond and Maple Valley take batteries, textiles and small electronics.
Work at one. Urban Animal's veterinary staff are its worker-owners. Seattle Gymnastics Academy is 100 percent employee-owned, so the staff at its gyms in Lake City, Ballard, Columbia City, Burien and Mill Creek share ownership through the ESOP. WinCo stock vests over six years, according to its careers page.
Start one. The Northwest Cooperative Development Center helps new co-ops with business plans, bylaws, financing and training, and runs a revolving loan fund. Seattle Electric Bike's conversion was financed by LEAF Fund and Shared Capital, two lenders that specialize in cooperatives.
Convert one. If you own a business, or work for an owner nearing retirement, NWCDC's conversion service takes a sale to worker-owners from feasibility through closing. Check with the Department of Commerce on whether the state tax credit returns.
We checked more leads than made the list. Some were left out because their employees don't own them, or own only a small share: Theo Chocolate announced a merger with the family-owned American Licorice Company in 2023, Town & Country Markets describes itself as family-owned, and Mud Bay's employee trust held just over 10 percent in 2021. Seven more, including a Pike Place bookstore, a massage cooperative, a cleaning co-op and a bike messenger co-op, are held until we can confirm ownership and current hours directly. If you know a worker-owned or employee-owned business in the Seattle area that belongs here, tell FYP Seattle.
Information verified October 2026 by FYP Seattle. Know a business we missed, or one that has changed hands? Tell us.