Responsible Profit is an open standard in development: a public grade for how a business treats the people who work there and the community it operates in, proved from its own books. You can read the draft standard and join the founding list for updates.
How it compares · November 2026
How it stacks up against the badges you know
There are plenty of badges a business can put on its website. None of them answers the simple question behind this one: when a business makes money, how much of it reaches the people who do the work and the town it's in? Responsible Profit answers that from the business's own financial records, in a letter grade anyone can read. The other marks each do something else. They check many things at once, rank only big public companies, look at wages alone, certify how a company is owned, or ask staff how they feel. None of them checks all four of our tests from the books, and none is meant to be read in a shop window.
We measure one thing on purpose. A business can have our grade and any of these other marks at the same time. The numbers below come from each organization's own website, checked between 4 and 6 November 2026. Sources are at the bottom of the page.
Side by side
The twelve we get asked about most, and what each one leaves out.
| Mark | What it checks | How it checks, and what it costs | How big it is | What it leaves out, and what we do instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B Corp (B Lab) | Seven areas of how a company runs, from workers to the environment. Since 2026 a company has to meet minimum requirements in each area instead of hitting a points score. | B Lab reviews the paperwork, with an outside check from 2026, every five years. $2,100 a year for a company under $5 million in sales, up to $52,500 for a $1 billion company. | More than 10,700 companies in 104 countries, about 3,000 of them in the U.S. Four in ten people in the U.S. and Canada have heard of it. | A yes-or-no badge across many topics, and it never asks how much of the profit reaches the workers. The fee shuts out the smallest businesses. We grade one thing, as a letter, list every business for free, and aim to keep the fee under $300. |
| JUST Capital | Seventeen issues, weighted by what Americans say matters in a yearly poll. Workers count for 30% of the score, customers 23%, shareholders and governance 19%, the environment 14%, communities 14%. | Researchers read public filings and government data. Companies pay nothing. The lowest-scoring 10% are not shown. | 933 of the biggest public companies in the U.S. (2026). | Only huge public companies, ranked against each other rather than graded one by one, with no test for how profit is split. We grade a business of any size from its own books, and we show every grade. |
| Living Wage For US | Whether a company pays at least a living wage for its county. Two levels: Pledged (working toward it) and Leading (already there). | The organization's own assessment. The fee depends on company size. | More than 300 employers covering 250,000 workers (2026, their own count). | Wages only. A living wage is one of our four tests. We also ask whether profit is shared, with how many people, and how big the pay gap is. |
| Real Living Wage (UK) | Whether a company pays at least a rate set by an independent group, with a plan for contractors too. | An application. From £100 a year, about $130, for a company with fewer than 10 staff. | Nearly 17,000 employers. | Wages only. But it proves a cheap mark can reach thousands of small employers. |
| Wagemark | That the highest-paid person earns no more than 8 times the average of the lowest-paid tenth of staff. | Any chartered accountant could sign off. $200 a year. | Started in Canada in 2013 and faded, because nothing paid for it. | The pay gap only. We use its 8-to-1 limit for small businesses and its accountant sign-off, and we fund a ratings team so it lasts. |
| Certified Employee-Owned and ESOPs | That the employees own a share of the company. | A membership. The rules and the fee aren't on the home page. | More than 700 companies (November 2026). | Owning shares is a setup, not a result. It says nothing about this year's wages, the pay gap, or how much profit actually reached staff. We grade the result, however a company is owned, and money put into an employee ownership plan counts toward our profit-sharing test. |
| Great Place To Work | A 60-question survey asking staff how they feel about trust, respect, fairness, pride and belonging, plus a write-up about the company's culture. | The company pays for the survey. Good for 12 months. Price on request. | 22,000 companies and 20 million employees surveyed (2026). | How people feel, not what they're paid or what they share. We ask staff too, but only to confirm that what the books say really happened. |
| Glassdoor and Comparably | Anonymous reviews from employees. | Reviews are moderated. Companies can pay for a better-looking profile. | Comparably: 20 million ratings of 70,000 companies (2024). | Opinions can be gamed, and nothing is checked against records. |
| Good Business Charter (UK) | Ten promises: a real living wage, fair hours, well-being, a voice for staff, inclusion, the environment, fair tax, treating customers well, ethical sourcing, and paying small suppliers within 30 days. | Companies sign up and vouch for themselves, with spot checks. Free. | About 1,300 organizations (2026). | The closest thing to ours in spirit, but it's yes-or-no and the company grades itself. We check the books and give a grade. |
| Economy for the Common Good | A scorecard of dignity, fairness, the environment and shared decision-making. A company can score below zero. | Checked by peers or an outside auditor. About 1,000 euros for a small company. | A few hundred audited scorecards, mostly in Europe. | Few companies use it, and there's no single grade to read. |
| ESG ratings (MSCI, S&P, Sustainalytics) | How risky a big company looks to investors on environmental, social and governance issues. | Secret formulas, paid for by investors. Six rating firms agree with each other only about half the time; credit ratings agree more than 90% of the time. | Big public companies. | Nobody can see how the score is made, and it says nothing about who gets the profit. Our method is published, with a version number. |
| Benefit corporations (U.S.) | A legal setup that lets directors weigh more than shareholder profit. | Nobody checks from outside. Delaware doesn't require any outside standard. | Allowed in about 37 states. | A legal form, not a measure of how a company actually behaves. |
We also looked at Fair Trade USA, the Fair Labor Association and SA8000 (they cover overseas suppliers, not profit sharing at home); the Fair Tax Mark (tax only); France's société à mission (a legal status with a required outside opinion, held by 2,702 companies); the grades regulators give banks under the Community Reinvestment Act; Civic 50 and Ethisphere (awards for companies with over $1 billion in sales); and local-first campaigns (pledges, but no grade for any one business).
What we learned from them
The marks that last have three things in common. A business has to clear a bar on every test, not just add up points. Small businesses can afford them. And somebody acts on the result.
- Clear every bar; don't just add up points. A points score can look great while one serious problem hides inside it. That's why B Lab dropped its 80-point score for minimum requirements in 2026. Our four tests work the same way: a business has to pass all four to get an A. Points only decide between an A and a B after that.
- Keep the money away from the grade. Fair Trade USA got 90.6% of its 2023 revenue from the brands it certifies, and Ethisphere charges companies to apply. The marks people trust most are free, or paid for by someone other than the company being graded. Our grades are not for sale.
- One formula, published. ESG scores lost people's trust because the rating firms couldn't agree with each other. We use one method, with a version number, and every point says which record it came from.
- Show how many get each grade, and make the grade matter. Bank regulators pass about 98% of banks on their community lending exams, yet the grade still matters because a bad one can block a merger. We'll publish how many businesses get each grade every year, and we're asking lenders, buyers and platforms to act on the grades.
- Getting known takes years. Four in ten people have heard of B Corp after 19 years. A sticker in the window and a line on a listing reach more people than a logo on a website.
- Price it for Main Street. The marks with thousands of small employers cost about $130 a year or nothing. The ones that cost $2,100 and up have about 3,000 U.S. members. That's why listing is free and we aim to keep the fee under $300.
- Check from more than one angle. Self-reports and reviews can be gamed. France requires an outside opinion and still has 2,702 companies signed up. We check the books, ask the staff, and re-check some businesses at random.
Where our numbers come from
None of our tests is made up. Each one copies something that already works somewhere.
| Our test | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Share at least 10% of profit with workers | Delta gives employees 10% of its first $2.5 billion in profit and 20% above that. Southwest shares 15% of operating profit. |
| Include at least 70% of the staff who aren't owners | The IRS requires retirement plans to cover 70% of employees. In France, profit sharing reaches every employee within three months. |
| Pay at least a living wage for one adult | Living-wage programs in the U.S. and U.K. use a published local rate. The one-adult figure is the lowest bar any of them uses. |
| Keep the top earner within 8 times the typical worker, for businesses under 50 people | Wagemark certified 8 to 1. Ben and Jerry's held 5 to 1 until 1994, then 7 to 1. Whole Foods capped cash pay at 19 times the average. Mondragon's co-ops run near 6 to 1. Our 12-to-1 and 20-to-1 limits for bigger companies have no precedent, which is one reason we're asking for comment. |
| Pass every test first, then count points | B Lab's 2026 switch from a points score to minimum requirements. |
| Let an accountant's letter count as proof | Wagemark let any chartered accountant sign off. |
| Ask the staff, anonymously | Great Place To Work's employee survey, turned into a simple check: did what the business reported really happen? |
| Let a business correct its record before anything is shown | JUST Capital gives companies a window to fix the record with evidence. |
| Publish how many get each grade | The bank grades under the Community Reinvestment Act: nearly everyone passes, yet the grade matters because regulators act on it. |
Where they beat us, honestly
The comparison cuts both ways. Each of the big marks has something we don't, and we'd rather say so than pretend otherwise.
- B Corp has a 19-year head start, 10,700 companies, and four in ten people know the name. It also covers the environment, which we don't. We stay narrow on purpose, we say a business can hold both, and we reach shoppers with a window sticker and a line on a listing instead of a logo.
- JUST Capital has data on 933 companies, charges them nothing, and sets its weights by polling thousands of Americans a year. We're starting with a 30-business pilot, an independent council will set the numbers after public comment, and our two surveys are the first poll we know of about a grade like this.
- Living-wage certifications are one number that's easy to explain, with solid research behind it. Our wage test depends on licensed data, and that license isn't settled yet.
- Great Place To Work and Glassdoor hear directly from millions of employees. Our staff check is smaller on purpose and needs half of a business's staff to answer. That's a real risk, and the pilot will test it.
- Employee-ownership groups have a loyal community and a tax break behind them. We don't require anyone to change how they're owned, we count money put into employee ownership plans, and we'd rather work with them than compete.
Straight answers
No. B Corp checks seven areas and gives a yes-or-no badge, with fees from $2,100 a year. We check one thing, how much of a business's profit and pay reaches its people and its town, from its books, and give a letter grade. A business can have both.
JUST ranks 933 of the biggest public companies using public filings. We grade any business, down to a ten-person shop, from its own books, and we show every grade.
A living wage is one of our four tests. We also ask whether profit is shared, with how many people, and how big the pay gap is.
Owning shares is a setup, not a result. Money a business puts into its employee ownership plan counts toward our profit-sharing test, and an employee-owned business that pays a living wage and keeps its pay gap small should do well. But it gets graded like everyone else.
That measures how staff feel. We measure what they're paid and what they share, and we only ask staff to confirm the records.
That's a legal setup with no outside check. Our grade is checked, and a benefit corporation can earn one.
No. ESG is a set of investor risk scores for big companies. Ours is voluntary, run by no government, and it comes down to arithmetic: who gets the profit, according to the books.
None of the existing marks opens the books to check all four things at once: profit shared, with how many people, a living wage, and the pay gap. And none of them gives a shopper a letter to read in the window.
Sources and caveats
- B Lab pricing, B Lab brand awareness survey, 2025, and Linklaters on the 2026 requirements.
- JUST Capital 2026 ranking methodology.
- Living Wage For US and the Living Wage Foundation.
- High Pay Centre on Wagemark, CBS News on Ben and Jerry's ratio, and the Whole Foods compensation memo.
- Certified Employee-Owned, Great Place To Work certification FAQ, Good Business Charter.
- MIT Sloan, Aggregate Confusion Project on ESG rater disagreement, and the U.S. Treasury CRA memo.
- Fair Trade USA 2023 annual report and the société à mission register.
Every count comes from the organization's own website. B Corp's numbers are partly secondhand, JUST's weights are from its 2026 method, and Certified Employee-Owned doesn't publish its fee. Every number in our draft is a proposal, open for comment until version 1.0 is set.
Help set the numbers
If one of these marks does something better than we do, tell us. Every number in draft v0.9 is open for comment, and we'll update this page as the standard moves toward version 1.0.