Explainer
Vetting your next employer: check the public record before you sign
You've had the interviews and the offer letter is on the table. Before you sign, there's one more piece of homework worth a few minutes: checking what the company actually does, as opposed to what its careers page says. Most of that is public record. Here's where to look, with ChooseWell and with two government databases.
Step 1: Find the right company
Job postings often come from a brand or subsidiary that isn't the legal entity making political contributions or filing safety reports. In ChooseWell, open the plus button and choose Enter company to find the employer, or scan one of its products. The company page shows the parent company when there is one. Check that too: political spending is recorded against the company that owns the brand.
Step 2: Look at its political spending
The Political score shows how much the company has spent since 2024 to influence policy: its corporate PAC's giving to candidates, with the share to each party, its federal lobbying and the issues lobbied, Super PAC giving and state-level giving. It comes from FEC filings, Lobbying Disclosure Act reports and state campaign-finance records. ChooseWell doesn't count personal donations by individual employees; those are their own money, not the company's.
Step 3: Check its products and its workplaces
If the company makes things you can scan, such as food, cosmetics or household goods, scan a few. The Safety score shows open recalls and flagged ingredients for each.
For the workplace itself, the Labor Department's OSHA establishment search lists federal workplace-safety inspections by company name, and, where a citation was issued, the violations. ChooseWell doesn't include this record, so it's worth a separate look.
Step 4: Decide what matters before you look
Values aren't one-size-fits-all. Decide ahead of time what you're checking for, such as lobbying on a particular issue, a recall history or inspection results, so you're comparing the record with your own standard, not reacting with an offer letter in hand.
What the record means, and what it doesn't
These records show what a company has spent and what inspectors and regulators have found. They don't tell you what it's like to work there day to day, and they don't explain why a company made a choice. A Low political score means nothing large was found in public filings, not that there was no activity. An OSHA inspection can follow a complaint or a routine schedule, and not every inspection leads to a citation. Use the record alongside conversations with people who work there.
How ChooseWell shows this
Enter company and every product page are free to scan, no account needed; ChooseWell Pro, an optional yearly membership from $10, adds search by name and the Political pages for candidates and PACs. Every score links to its source, so you can open the filings yourself.
Check it yourself
Scan any barcode in ChooseWell to see the maker's open recalls, flagged ingredients and political spending, each with its public source. Free to scan, no account.
