Blog
Latest Jobs Report Shows – Again – that Economy Can Heal Itself
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) latest job numbers are being treated as gloomy news because overall unemployment marginally increased to 6.1 percent…
News Release
Some Good News in April 2021 Job Numbers
The unemployment rate didn’t budge much in April, according to just-released data from the Labor Department, but CEI labor policy expert Sean Higgins…
WORLD
PODCAST: Help Desperately Wanted
WORLD’s podcast, “Help Desperately Wanted,” cited Senior Fellow Sean Higgins on unemployment and COVID-19: Sean Higgins is a research fellow at the…
Blog
Biden Administration Says Lets Keep the Rules for Contract Work Vague and Confusing
In a move that surprised no one, the Biden administration announced today it was officially rolling back the Trump administration’s rule under the…
News Release
Biden Spending Proposals Will Harm Economy, Raise Costs for Consumers
President Joe Biden will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress tonight, where he is expected to detail legislation to spend trillions…
Blog
Is Biden Planning New Payroll Taxes?
President Biden will reportedly use address to Congress tonight to tout his American Families Plan, a major part of which is paid family leave.
Reason
When Joe Biden Talks About Worker Choice, He Means Only 1 Choice
President Joe Biden believes joining a union isn’t merely a right that workers have but something the federal government has an obligation to promote. He…
News Release
President Biden’s Pro-Labor Executive Order Goes Beyond Law’s Intent
President Joe Biden today signed an executive order establishing a new White House task force aimed at promoting labor unions. The White House Task…
The Washington Times
Biden Creates Task Force to Spur Unionization of U.S. Workforce
The Washington Times cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on pro-union steps taken by president Biden: Sean Higgins, a research fellow with the…
Blog
The One Place Progressives Want the Vote Suppressed: Union Elections
Big business has a new weapon to use against organized labor: mailboxes. That is what the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) claims is…
Blog
DOL On Independent Contractor Rule: We Were Wrong but We Cannot Explain Why
The Biden administration put the Department of Labor (DOL) in the awkward position of having to withdraw its new rule regarding when workers…
Blog
Maybe Workers Just Aren’t That into You, Unions
Labor unions are second only to Donald Trump when it comes to crying foul over election outcomes they don’t like. The National Labor Relations Board…
Comment
Competitive Enterprise Institute Letter In Opposition To Withdrawal of Independent Contractor Status Final Rule
View Full Document as PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the…
News Release
U.S. Economy Added 916k Jobs in March 2021, Further Proof Lifting Govt Restrictions Helps Recovery
The U.S. economy experienced gains in March, due to states reopening and vaccines rolling out. Sean Higgins, CEI research fellow, urged governments to continue…
Reason
Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Would Overturn ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws in 27 States
Reason cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the PRO Act: “The PRO Act does strengthen unions, but it does so mainly by…
News Release
CEI Experts Say Biden “Infrastructure” Plan Will Harm Economy, Raise Taxes and Costs for Consumers
President Joe Biden’s proposed legislative package to increase taxes and spend trillions was released today by the White House. The wide-ranging bill included provisions on…
Blog
Are Janus Violations a RICO Matter?
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers cannot be forced to financially support unions, labor groups…
Blog
The PRO Act’s Extremely Broad “Whistleblower” Provisions
The Senate confirmed former Boston Mayor and ex-union official Marty Walsh as the new Labor Secretary Tuesday by a vote of 93-2.
News Release
Biden’s Pick for Labor Secretary Has Union-First History
The Senate is expected to soon confirm President Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. CEI labor policy expert…
Blog
Yes, Let’s Debate Taking Rights Away from Workers
Legislation doesn’t get much simpler than the National Right To Work Act. Introduced by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson…
The Washington Times
With an Eye on Prosperity
The Washington Times cites CEI’s publication, Free to Prosper, and related online event: The Competitive Enterprise Institute will release “Free to Prosper,”…
Blog
Biden Administration Wants to Decide When Freelancers Are “Legitimate”
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Thursday, March 11 that it was rescinding a rule issued by the previous administration on when workers…
Blog
House Passes Legislation to Limit Individual Worker Rights
The House of Representatives passed legislation late Tuesday to significantly limit individual workers’ rights. That is, granted, not how the Protecting the Right…
Blog
Teacher Union Resistance to School Openings Keeping Moms out of Workforce
The closure of schools and the resistance by teachers’ unions to reopening them is having the spillover effect of forcing more women out of the…
Blog
Congress Should Read the Fine Print on Sami’s Law
Whether a person is an employee of an app-based ridesharing company like Uber or Lyft under U.S. law has been a major hot button issue.
News Release
U.S. Economy Added 379,000 Jobs in Feb. 2021 – Small Progress, Further Steps Needed
Today the Labor Department released national unemployment figures for the month of February 2021, revealing not much has changed in a month. February’s unemployment rate…
Blog
Alternate Minimum Wage Proposal Suggests Punishing Business Is the Real Goal
Fans of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour have come up with a workaround for the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling Thursday that that…
The Washington Examiner
The Secret History of the Minimum Wage Movement
As congressional Democrats push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s worth asking where that figure came from. Why $15 (more…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike will Force Cuts Elsewhere
With the Democrat-controlled Congress aiming to imminently pass a plan to increase the federally-mandated minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour nationwide as part…
Blog
Are Democrats All or Nothing for a $15 Minimum Wage?
Can congressional Republicans bid down the Democrats’ and Biden administration’s push for a $15 an hour minimum wage? That’s what Republicans lead by Sens.
Blog
California’s Khanna Says Businesses that Cannot Pay $15 Wages Are Dying Anyway
California Congressman Ro Khanna has a message for businesses that say they cannot afford to pay a $15 minimum wage an hour for their workers:…
Blog
Biden Administration Presses Forward with Attack on Gig Economy Companies
The Biden administration last week continued its effort to help its union allies by officially withdrawing a Trump-era Labor Department guidance letter to businesses…
Blog
Biden Picks Top Union Attorney to Enforce Labor Rules
The Biden administration announced this week that it was nominating Jennifer Abruzzo to serve as acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board…
Blog
CBO Restates the Obvious: Raising the Minimum Wage Costs Jobs
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday reaffirmed something we already knew but that bears repeating: Higher minimum wages costs jobs. The CBO’s…
Blog
January Jobs Gain Threatened by Prospect of Minimum Wage Hike
The Labor Department’s report Friday that the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in January, down 0.4 points from the previous month, is good news that…
Blog
Biden Administration Begins Bid to Create Nationwide Version of California’s AB5
On the same day that President Joe Biden’s nominee for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, told a Senate committee that he would…
Blog
Questions for Marty Walsh
President Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will get his first Senate hearing on Thursday. Walsh is a former union head…
Fortune
One of Biden’s First Acts as President May Have Broken the Law
One of Joe Biden’s first acts as President of the United States, the removal of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel Peter Robb, was…
Blog
Be Skeptical of Studies that Say Minimum Wage Hikes Are Painless
Do economists downplay the negative findings in their research on the minimum wage? That’s the implication of a new working paper on the issue for…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike to $15 an Hour Will Hurt Small Businesses, Lead to Lost Jobs
President-elect Joe Biden today announced a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery plan that includes not only $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans but a federal minimum…
Blog
Department of Labor Cautions “Gig Economy” Companies against Limiting Workers’ Freedom
The Department of Labor (DOL) said on Wednesday, January 6, that if someone is currently working for one or more of your business rivals, then…
News Release
December Job Losses in Leisure & Hospitality Eclipse Gains in Other Sectors – What Can Policymakers Do?
The Labor Department reported today the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December 2020. Gains in various sectors were eclipsed by 500,000 jobs lost in…
Blog
Biden Labor Nominee Marty Walsh Poised to Make Radical Changes
Joe Biden’s decision to nominate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary will elevate a person to oversee the nation’s workplace who is not…
News Release
Biden’s Labor Dept. Pick Will Likely Seek Union-First Policies
President-elect Joe Biden announced Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his pick for Labor secretary. That signals a union-first approach to labor policy, predicts Sean…
The Washington Examiner
The Davis-Bacon Act May Present Challenges To Biden’s Infrastructure Plans
The Washington Examiner cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the Davis-Bacon Act: One of the reasons for the delay was the Obama…
Blog
Labor Department Independent Contractor Rule out Today
The Department of Labor (DOL) acted to promote entrepreneurialism and protect freelancers on Wednesday by issuing a new rule under the Fair Labor Standards…
National Review
How an Inexplicable New York Court Decision Threatens Uber and Lyft
Imagine a job where you only need to show up for work when you feel like it, and when you do show up, you can refuse…
Blog
UAW Corruption Case Reveals Lack of Accountability at Union
Today the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement in a long-running corruption probe of the United Auto Workers (UAW) that will put the…
Blog
Democrats Hoping to Unionize Entire Sectors of Economy at Once
Democratic lawmakers will push to have entire sectors of the economy unionized, a practice called “sectoral bargaining,” when Congress reconvenes next year. The idea behind…
Inside Sources
Does ‘Blue Collar Joe’ Biden Underwhelm Union Workers?
President-elect Joe Biden has radical ideas to build up union membership in Pennsylvania and across the country, having endorsed policies that labor leaders have wanted…
Blog
Labor Department Job Report Shows Improvement but Challenges Ahead
The Labor Department’s Friday report that 245,000 jobs were added in November confirms that, while an economic recovery is still underway, its momentum is…
Blog
Biden’s OMB Pick, Neera Tanden, Once Warned Democrats against a $15 Minimum Wage
Joe Biden’s choice of Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, to be the next director of the Office of Management and…
Blog
A Cold Winter for Santa in Sunland, California
Department store Santa Claus Patrick Turnbull has hoisted children onto his lap and listened to their Christmas wishes for two decades in Sunland, California, but…
National Review
Exit Polls Suggest Little Enthusiasm for Biden among Union Members
Although Joe Biden won a majority of votes cast by labor-union members, available data suggest he did slightly worse than past Democratic presidential candidates. That’s despite…
Blog
Biden to Focus on Public Sector Unions First?
All indications are that the Biden administration will be the most pro-labor one since at least Harry Truman’s. Biden has promised to defer to labor…
Blog
Can New York’s Hotel Industry Survive the Latest Union Victory?
Numerous New York City hotel owners are struggling to stay alive and their workers’ union isn’t exactly making it easy for them. In fact, there…
Blog
Who Will “Blue Collar Joe” Work for?
Joe Biden’s election as president of the United States signals a possibly radical shift in labor policy, pushing things much further left than even when…
Blog
In Spite of It All, Workers, Businesses Persevere
The Labor Department’s report that 638,000 jobs were added in October, bringing the national unemployment rate down to 6.9 percent, shows that the best thing…
Blog
California’s Proposition 22 Wins
Golden State voters did their neighbors a solid Tuesday by voting to support Proposition 22 by a wide margin, rolling back the misguided and #neverneeded…
Blog
Department of Labor’s Radical New Concept: Innocent until Proven Guilty
The Labor Department has an interesting new idea: only publicly shame companies when it is clear that they have made serious violations of the law.
Blog
Court Ruling Could Kill Uber and Lyft in California
A California appeals court ruling caps a crusade against ride-sharing apps in the state. Just days before Californians themselves were set to decide on…
Blog
Fans of California’s AB5 Are Drunk with Power, MADD Warns
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is urging Californians to abolish AB5, the state law supposedly meant to prevent worker misclassification by employers. The nonprofit public…
Blog
Labor Department Proposes Letting Rank and File Union Members Watch over their Organizations
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced today that it wants to update rules to require private sector unions to be more transparent in…
Blog
Up to 75 Percent of Uber Drivers Would Lose Work If They Were Classified as Employees
If organized labor and its allies in government are successful in their bid to force so-called gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft to treat…
Blog
Amazon Claims Worker COVID-19 Infection Rates below Norm
Amazon’s critics have made a point of saying the company is endangering its employees by keeping its fulfillment centers active during the COVID-19…
News Release
September Brought Uptick in Jobs – Will Next Government Steps Help or Hurt?
Employers added 661,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate declined to 7.9 percent from 8.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said today…
Blog
New York’s School Principals Try to Flunk the Mayor
The problem with public sector unions is that they represent not just the workers for a government entity but also the elected leaders’ constituents. That…
Blog
Yes, Ridesharing Is Mainly a Part-Time Gig
The vast majority of people who drive for rideshare company Uber in California do so for less than 40 hours or less a week. That’s…
National Review
The Notorious RBG’s Turf War with Congress
Reason
Department of Labor Proposes New Rule Protecting the Right To Be a Gig Worker
Reason cites research fellow Sean Higgins on California’s AB5 rule: The new rule “is definitely a reaction” to the California law, says Sean Higgins, a research…
National Review
The Notorious RBG’s Turf War with Congress
Reexamining Justice Ginsburg’s dissent in Ledbetter makes the deep flaws in her approach to the law clear. The late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg…
Blog
Labor Department Trying to Rewrite Definition of “Employer”
In the credit where credit is due department, the Trump administration deserves a cheer for attempting to save an emerging part of the economy: gig…
Blog
School Closures to Offer a Lesson in Economics
The U.S. got some good news that the employment rate had fallen to 8.4 percent in July, but it is possible that that could jump back…
Blog
Brother, Can You Spare Two Weeks?
Last year, California passed AB5, which was intended to go after rideshare companies Uber and Lyft. The law requires “gig economy” companies to classify all…
Blog
Headline: School Closures to Offer a Lesson in Economics
The U.S. got some good news that the employment rate had fallen to 8.4 percent in July, but it is possible that that could jump back…
The Detroit News
Workplace Transformation Will Affect Everyone, Even Labor Unions
The Labor Day holiday dates to the early 20th century, and envisioned as a public celebration of “the strength and esprit…
Blog
School’s Out Forever? Teachers Unions Flex Muscle on Reopening Policies
What determines whether your child school is open this fall? Apparently, the strength of the teachers local union. That was what analysts found using data…
Blog
California’s AB5 Holding Back Recovery Nationally
There was some modest good news in the Labor Department’s report today on unemployment benefits, the falling numbers indicating that people are finding work despite…
Blog
Should Parents Have to Choose between Keeping Federal Benefits or Keeping their Kids Safe from COVID-19?
Should parents have to choose between keeping federal benefits to cope with COVID-19 or keeping their children at home if the local school isn’t doing…
Blog
This Labor Day, Let’s Celebrate Individual Worker Rights
Labor Day 2020 is definitely an ironic moment: The federal government is having a holiday to celebrate working Americans at a time when record numbers…
Blog
App-less in Sacramento? Uber and Lyft Allowed to Postpone California Departure
On August 20, an appeals court in California allowed Uber and Lyft to halt their plans to flee the Golden State rather than comply with…
National Review
App Shrugged: Will Uber Go Galt in California?
The rideshare company Uber is threatening to end its operations in California entirely if the Golden State forces the company to classify all its drivers as…
Blog
Can You Have Worker Representatives without Unions? Uber Hopes So
Rideshare company Uber is trying to find a way to allow its drivers to collectively express any grievances or concerns they have without having those…
Blog
Trump Adopts one of Barack Obama’s Better Ideas: The Payroll Tax Cut
Trump’s decision to Institute a payroll tax holiday via an executive order over the weekend is a good idea even if its effectiveness as an…
Blog
Californians: Educate Your Children at Your Own Risk
Activist Carl DeMaio caused a stir this week by holding a press conference in which he declared that hiring tutors could be could result in…
Blog
Voodoo Economics—Congress pushes for COVID-19 relief for the deceased
Blog
R.I.P. Herman Cain (1945-2020)
The Wall Street Journal
Moonlighting Could Lift a Threat to Uber
Letting drivers work for competitors demonstrates that they’re contractors and not employees. If you use Uber regularly, you’ve probably climbed into a car that displays…
Blog
If You Can’t Convince Them, Confuse Them: California Political Establishment Doubles Down on AB5
Progressives are fond of saying that authority never gives up power easily. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is demonstrating that by rewriting the ballot language…
Blog
Reversing Opening Comes at a Price
This is one of those things that is kind of obvious but needs to be pointed out anyway: Reversing opening your state’s economy due to…
Blog
Electronic Union Elections: A Permanent “Temporary” Solution?
Some lawmakers and their union allies want to use the COVID-19 crisis to institute a radical change to union elections allow them to be held…
Blog
Chamber of Commerce to Congress: You’re Killing the Economy with Kindness
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce begged Congress on Thursday to scale back the $600 weekly unemployment benefit bonus it has been giving to U.S. workers.
Blog
A Massbackwards Approach to Helping Rideshare Drivers
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy on Tuesday jumped on the bandwagon that California Governor Gavin Newsom started by suing rideshare companies Uber and Lyft in…
Blog
Unions Say They Shouldn’t Be Burdened with Complex Process They Created
A favorite tactic used by unions to prevent membership losses, and the accompanying loss of dues money, is making the process of opting out of…
Blog
Congress’ Long Bipartisan History of Defending Cops Accused of Wrongdoing
For more than a decade, one of the areas of broad bipartisan agreement in Congress was on protecting police officers “unfairly targeted” for their “aggressive…
Blog
Unemployment Drops to 11 Percent, Showing the Economy Can Recover If We Let It
The Labor Department’s announcement Thursday that the unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent after the economy added 4.8 million jobs in July proves the previous…
Blog
For Small Businesses, Hiking Minimum Wages Now Is Like Throwing an Anchor to a Drowning Man
Three states and three major cities hiked up their minimum wages Wednesday, resisting calls by the business community to hold off until the COVID-19 crisis…
Blog
You’ve Been Volunteered—San Francisco’s Lawsuit against DoorDash
San Francisco has sued DoorDash for allegedly misclassifying its employees as contractors, but concedes in its own lawsuit that the “gig economy” company’s drivers work…
OC Register
Few Protections for Workers Whose Unions Rip Them Off
Maria Quezambra was ripped off for six years by the United Domestic Workers of America (UDWA) after someone at the union forged her signature on…
The Orange County Register
Few protections for workers whose unions rip them off
Maria Quezambra was ripped off for six years by the United Domestic Workers of America (UDWA) after someone at the union forged her signature on…