The Integrity Firewall Policy
Grades are Shoptegrity's opinion, reached by applying this published rubric to documented facts: ownership structure, SEC financial filings, and sourced regulatory records. The scoring engine has zero read access to commercial or affiliate data.
- No Paid Placements: We refuse sponsored brand listings, paid tier bumps, or brand consulting.
- Evidence-Backed or Explicitly "Unknown": Private companies that refuse public disclosure are given an explicit "Unknown" rating—opacity is never rewarded.
- Sourced or Withheld: A specific factual claim (an OSHA count, a denial rate, an enforcement action) is published only with a link to its source. Claims we cannot yet source are withheld automatically, not shown.
- Public Corrections: Any company or citizen can request a correction. We acknowledge within 2 business days and resolve within 10.
Where the Numbers Come From
- SEC filings (reported): For public companies, revenue, net income, dividends paid, share buybacks, and CEO total compensation are extracted automatically from SEC EDGAR XBRL data for the latest fiscal year, with a link to the exact filing. "Shareholders" in the dollar split = (dividends + buybacks) ÷ revenue. "CEO pay" = CEO total compensation ÷ revenue.
- Estimates (labelled "est."): The wage, marketing, and cost-of-goods shares of the dollar split are Shoptegrity estimates from company disclosures and sector data. They are not reported line items. "Operations & other" is whatever remains.
- Top 10% Ownership Index (est.): An estimate of how much of a company's shareholder payout reaches the wealthiest 10% of households, based on Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts data on stock ownership.
- OSHA records: Violation counts come from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement data: citation items from inspections opened in a fixed five-year window at establishments matching the company's names, excluding withdrawn citations. A reviewer checks the matched establishment names before a count is published, and every count links to OSHA's own establishment search.
- Sourced facts: Regulatory and labor facts appear only with a "[source]" link to the regulator record, court filing, or report.
- Ratings (opinion): Letter grades and the labor, waste, and sweatshop-risk ratings are our assessments under this rubric. They are opinions, not statements of fact.
The Six Scoring Dimensions
Each dimension is scored 0–100 with its own confidence rating based on source density.
Ownership & Structure
Default Weight: 25%Who receives the profits and holds governance rights.
Capital Extraction
Default Weight: 15%Share of profit extracted via dividends and buybacks versus reinvested or shared with workers.
Pay Equity
Default Weight: 15%CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio and living wage adherence.
Labor Practices
Default Weight: 15%Working conditions, safety records (OSHA), wage theft, fair trade, and union rights.
Environmental Impact
Default Weight: 15%Ecological footprint, EPA compliance, packaging sustainability, and regenerative agriculture.
Locality & Community Wealth
Default Weight: 15%Geographic proximity of headquarters and degree of local economic recirculation.
Primary Data Sources
Metrics: Pay Ratio, Dividends, Buybacks
Metrics: Farm share, Supply chain margins
Metrics: Violations, Severe injuries
Metrics: Water and air compliance, Toxic release
Metrics: Member assets, Cooperative charters