It gives employees a path to benefit from their labor directly rather than capitalized investors who aren't actually doing the work. Normally companies seek to

It gives employees a path to benefit from their labor directly rather than capitalized investors who aren't actually doing the work. Normally companies seek to find the balance of "saving money" by paying lower wages that are just enough to entice mostly productive employees, and profiting from the employees labor. To put it in the terms of Marx, the burgeouise pocketing the difference between the cost of their employees' labor and the value extracted from it is "surplus value", and is a manifestation of class warfare in capitalism that harms the working class. See also, "rent-seeking"