The Fender NOligarchy Profile
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Fender earns a NOligarchy Score of 85.16 out of 100 — a score built on clean political and regulatory records, tempered by limited public visibility into executive and shareholder compensation. Across the two-year tracking period from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 (8 quarters — the two-year tracking period), no lobbying filings, Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions, regulatory penalties, or stock buyback data have been matched to this company across any source this project tracks. That absence reflects the current state of available public records — not a confirmed finding of compliance or spending in either direction.
Current Pillar Scores
Political Access
100.0
Wealth Extraction
46.2
Playing by the Rules
100.0
Score history — 23 quarters
Tier bands show where each quarter's score falls — no numeric y-axis needed. The dashed ring marks the year-over-year comparison point. Tap any quarter but the first to see its pillar breakdown.
The Pillar Grades:
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Political Access Grade: 100/100. No federal lobbying spend, no PAC activity, and no executive political donations appear in any tracked filing for this period.
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Wealth Extraction Grade: 46.16/100. No buyback or dividend data has been matched to Fender’s public filings. The best available signal on the gap between executive and worker earnings comes from an industry benchmark estimate rather than a disclosed figure — and it points to a wide gap.
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Playing by the Rules Grade: 100/100. No regulatory fines or penalties have been matched to Fender across the tracked sources for this period.
The Sector Context: Fender ranks 5th out of 22 among companies sharing its federal industry classification — Sporting goods, hobby, and musical instrument retailers — with a score of 85.16 against a sector average of 68.6. That places Fender well above the typical accountability baseline for its peer group, though what drives that positioning is, in part, simply what public records do and do not yet capture for this company.
The Bottom Line: A High Score Built on Incomplete Public Records
No lobbying, PAC, executive-donation, CEO pay, stock buyback, fine, or subsidy records have been matched to Fender across any source this project tracks for the period from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026. That gap in the public record means it is not possible to identify a single most severe imbalance in how Fender allocates its resources — whether toward political influence, shareholder payouts, or regulatory settlements. The score reflects what public filings currently show, and what they currently show is very little.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage
No federal lobbying expenditure, no PAC spending, and no executive political donations have been matched to Fender in Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings or Federal Election Commission (FEC) records for the Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 period. The Senate LDA search returns no filings under this company’s name, and FEC records show no individual contributions tied to Fender employment. Whether that means Fender genuinely chose to stay out of federal politics during this window, or whether matching records exist under a different filing name or structure, cannot be determined from current available data.
EXHIBIT — THE RESERVED SEAT
$0 in lobbying · $0 in PAC money
Fender filed no federal lobbying and ran no corporate PAC in this window — the reserved seat at the witness table sits empty.
No revolving-door hires — former government officials brought on to work political connections — appear in the tracked record.
A Benchmark Gap, Not a Disclosed One
No stock buyback or dividend data has been matched to Fender’s SEC filings for the two-year period. Without those figures, it is not possible to calculate how much was handed to shareholders, or what that sum could have meant for workers on the floor.
What is available is an industry-level benchmark. Fender’s CEO pay ratio is not publicly disclosed; the best available figure is 430:1, based on AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch industry benchmarks for comparable companies in this sector. That means — by the best available estimate — every dollar a typical worker at a company like Fender takes home in a year, the person at the top takes home 430. Because this figure is a benchmark estimate rather than a number Fender itself disclosed, no precise dollar amount for the CEO’s earnings can be stated — multiplying an estimate by an assumed wage would compound two layers of uncertainty into a false precision. No buyback or dividend data is recorded for this period, so the full wealth extraction picture remains outside what public records currently show.
Outside Current Tracking Coverage
No regulatory fines, penalties, or legal settlements have been matched to Fender across the tracked sources — including Good Jobs First’s violation database — for the Q3 2024 through Q2 2026 period. As with the political and compensation data, this reflects the current state of matched public records rather than a verified clean bill of health. No public subsidy grants or tax credit awards have been identified for this period either.