Editorial policy

This page describes how Framing & Figures decides what to publish, where the numbers come from, and what happens when we get something wrong. It applies to every page on the site.

Sourcing

We work from primary sources only:

• statutes and regulations, read in the official text rather than in someone's summary;
• state agency, licensing board and department of labor pages;
• IRS, DOL and SSA publications for payroll and tax constants;
• vendors' own published pricing pages for software costs.

If a figure exists only in a blog post, a press release, a forum answer or another site's table, it is not sourced. It is a lead: we either trace it back to the primary source or we leave it out. Unverified figures are not published. When something matters and we cannot verify it, we say that on the page instead of guessing.

Every figure carries a citation to the source it came from and the date we retrieved it. Quoted statutory text is reproduced as written, with its citation, so you can check us.

Dating

Numbers go stale, so every number is dated.

• Data points show a verified on date: the day the figure was last confirmed against the source cited beside it (the live page, or the archived copy of the official text where the Sources list says so).
• Pages show a last-updated date.
• Datasets show the date of their most recent full re-check.

A date on this site means the source was checked that day. It does not mean the page was edited that day.

Reviewers

Our editor, Oussama Chicha, is not an attorney, CPA, insurance producer or surety agent, and we do not pretend otherwise.

When a page says "Reviewed by", it names a specific licensed professional, states their credential and the date of the review, and that person read the published draft and signed off on its accuracy within their field. Nothing else counts as a review. Pages that have not had a professional review say so plainly. We never imply review by association. A reviewer named on one page does not vouch for another.

Independence from advertisers and affiliates

We take display advertising through Google AdSense, and links to software vendors may become affiliate links that earn us a commission; at launch, none are. We take no referral fees or commissions from surety or insurance providers. Those relationships have no influence on editorial decisions.

A commercial relationship never changes a price we show, a rating we give, the order in which products appear, or whether a product is included or excluded. Advertisers and affiliate partners do not see pages before publication, do not review our tables, and have no route to request a change other than reporting a factual error like anyone else. We do not place ads inside a calculator, next to a calculator's result, or styled to look like editorial content. Affiliate links carry rel="sponsored". Full detail is on how we make money.

How we use AI

We use software tools, including AI-assisted drafting and checking, in producing content: for first drafts, for reformatting, and for cross-checking our own tables for inconsistencies.

AI output is never treated as a source, and no draft is published until every figure in it has been checked against its primary source. A named human editor is responsible for every page and accountable for corrections. If a number cannot be traced to a primary source, it does not get published, no matter what produced the draft.

Corrections

We correct errors rather than quietly editing them away. Report one from any page by email to [email protected] with the subject line Correction: <page URL>. Material corrections are logged with the date, the page, what changed and why, in the public corrections log. The full process is on that page.

How often we re-check

Anything we learn is wrong sooner than that gets fixed when we learn it, not at the next scheduled pass. If a dataset has missed its scheduled re-check, its page says when it was last verified so you can judge it for yourself.

Last updated September 23, 2026.