70,000 workers own their companies and split the profits

The Mondragón Corporation, the world's largest federation of worker-owned cooperatives, reported net profits of €618 million in 2025 across its 92 businesses in Spain's Basque Country. It employs more than 70,000 people, and the workers own the companies and split the profits. The rules are unusual. Each cooperative caps the pay gap between its highest and lowest earners at six to one. Spain's national average is about 110 to one. Everyone gets one vote at the annual assembly, from floor engineers to executives. Iker Aranburu, who joined in 2006, remembers when workers voted down a big international expansion the governing council wanted. The council was forced to resign. "We have the choice to decide," he said, wrench in hand. When appliance-maker Igor Herrate and his wife lost their jobs to a bankruptcy in 2013, both were working again within two months. "You feel protected for life here," he said. By late 2027, one cooperative plans to start building humanoid robots.