Mental Health in Worker Cooperatives: Evidence for Upstream Intervention

ABSTRACT Worker cooperatives shape underlying conditions often associated with psychological health, such as by providing stable employment and fostering community. However, their role in advancing mental health and wellbeing is largely unknown. This study investigated workers’ experiences in cooperatives and their perceptions of mental health and well-being at collective workplaces. Constructivist grounded theory analysis of 40 workers from 14 U.S.-based cooperatives identified four core themes: normalizing mental health and well-being , cultivating workplace community , enhancing meaningful work , and protecting job security . The first theme highlights how worker cooperatives empower workers to develop policies that reduce systemic barriers and create supportive environments. These practices are reinforced by cultivating workplace communities rooted in unity, mutual care, and solidarity among workers. For individual workers, cooperatives enhance meaningful work by fostering people-focused organizational cultures, elevating worker respect and voice, and connecting work with organizational missions and broader communities. Finally, protecting job security reflects strategies to strengthen job security. Study findings suggest that worker cooperatives are understood by participants as organizational contexts in which cooperative values and principles impact experiences of work and well-being. They also highlight how participants interpret cooperative practices as linked to organizational arrangements that may reduce structural risks and build healthy workplaces. These insights suggest that worker cooperatives provide analytically rich cases for understanding how structural approaches to work organization are meaningfully constructed in relation to mental health and well-being, with relevance for occupational health scholarship beyond alternative enterprises.