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• profit sharing
  profit sharing

  noun

  the sharing of profits, as between employer and employee, especially in such a way that the employee receives, in addition to wages, a share in the profits of the business.
• profit-sharing
  profit-sharing

  noun

  a system in which a portion of the net profit of a business is distributed to its employees, usually in proportion to their wages or their length of service

profit sharing

American  

noun

1. the sharing of profits, as between employer and employee, especially in such a way that the employee receives, in addition to wages, a share in the profits of the business.

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profit-sharing British  

noun

1. a system in which a portion of the net profit of a business is distributed to its employees, usually in proportion to their wages or their length of service

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profit sharing Cultural  

1. Distributing the profits, or part of the profits, of a business to its employees.

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Other Word Forms

• profitsharing
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of profit sharing

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

profit sharing profit-sharing

“How is this all going to be financed? How’s the profit sharing to work?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025

Westinghouse’s AP1000 line of nuclear reactors will be used, the announcement said, and there would be profit sharing for all parties, including the U.S. government, once certain thresholds are met.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2025

It says profit sharing is "not going to be enough to deliver our support and the support of the workforce".

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2024

Although the current contract contains no provision for profit sharing, it does allow union officials to explore such an arrangement with PCC management.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2024

At this point we shall probably digress for a while to go into a brief but adequate exposition of the League of Nations, municipal ownership, profit sharing and the single tax.

From Pieces of Hate And Other Enthusiams by Heywood Broun

When demand slowed after Covid receded, the company suspended dividends for 2022 to maintain employee profit-sharing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

The Commerce Department is close behind with a profit-sharing arrangement in nuclear-energy company Westinghouse and stakes in semiconductor-related startups I-Pulse, SandboxAQ and xLight.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

Nonmatching contributions are often structured as profit-sharing plans or, less commonly, as an employee stock ownership plan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

It’s nothing a grand profit-sharing plan wouldn’t fix, if there are any modern Henry Fords out there interested in restoring the balance between capital and labor.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

There was the profit-sharing plan, with Wal-Mart’s stock price posted daily in a prominent spot near the break room.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich