[1][2][3] In publicly traded companies, these plans typically amount to allocation of shares to employees.
Another of early pioneers of profit sharing was English politician Theodore Taylor, who is known to have introduced the practice in his woollen mills during the late 1800s.
[8][9] In 1889, economist Nicholas Paine Gilman documented 135 cases of profit-sharing in the United States and Europe.
[14] Profit-sharing partnerships are also prevalent in industries such as law, accounting, medicine, investment banking, architecture, advertising, and consulting.
[15] The Harvard economist Martin L. Weitzman was a prominent proponent of profit-sharing in the 1980s, influencing governments to incentivize the practice.
[17][18][19][20][21][22] The share of profits paid to the management or to the board of directors is sometimes called the tantième.
[citation needed] This French term is generally applied in describing the business and finance practices of certain European countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, and Sweden.