10 Charts That Prove Americans Want Companies To Do Better

Americans have high expectations for corporations. As the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal shows, a firm's reputation is tied deeply to consumers' trust.

"You get some credit for staying clean and having a good product, but you really get nailed when you blow it," said Hewson Baltzell, a research head at the nonprofit Just Capital.

People across a wide spectrum of political leanings, income brackets and geographic regions believe that big companies aren't headed in a good direction and need to be more socially responsible, according a new survey by Just, which studies how businesses can improve their social mission.

Asked to identify elements of corporate justice, people's top choices were good employee pay and benefits, satisfied workers alongside fair hiring practices and products or services that have a strong impact on society. A majority of the 43,000 respondents agreed that businesses should not pay rock-bottom wages, and that those wages were not justifiable.

"It’s an endorsement of the idea that we should be doing good," Baltzell told The Huffington Post.

Check out the rest of the survey results: