This Illinois company was just sold for $3 billion, but hundreds of employees are getting a cut. Some will get $800,000. – Chicago Tribune/MSN

Pete Stavros, an Arlington Heights native whose dad was a union road grader with a Chicago construction company, developed the model for vesting hourly employees with equity ownership at no cost. In addition to an ownership stake, employees were allocated $1 million per year for enhancing the factory, investing in everything from air conditioning to new break rooms and a cafeteria. Productivity flourished, Stavros said, with revenue growing by 120% and the earnings margin increasing from 21% to 35% during KKR’s ownership of C.H.I.