The Idiot Index

Applied to brick-and-mortar and omnichannel retailers. COGS captures merchandise purchased for resale plus distribution, so the Markup Ratio is naturally compressed (retail margins are thin by structure); the load-bearing indicator is Labor Share, since retail employs millions of workers and pay-ratio disclosures are politically central to the sector.

Required disclosure under Dodd-Frank Section 953(b) since 2018. Filed in DEF 14A proxy statements. The dashboard aggregates the disclosure across the top 50 and ranks.

Source data: CEO total compensation and median employee compensation, both as filed in the company's most recent DEF 14A. When the ratio is XBRL-tagged we use the tagged value; otherwise the narrative disclosure is parsed (~99% accuracy).