Blog
California App Drivers Seem Happy that Proposition 22 Passed
Ever since Proposition 22’s lopsided November victory in California, critics of that ballot initiative have pushed the narrative that voters were confused by…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…