Whether it is exposing legislation and regulations that benefit unions, lawyers or management at the expense of workers, detailing the folly of occupational licensing laws; supporting the expansion of state right-to-work laws; or highlighting the overreach of lawmakers, bureaucrats, and courts; CEI advances reforms in this crucial, often overlooked policy area. Our op-eds, policy papers, media appearances, coalition work, and innovative research serve as crucial counterweights to the aggressive efforts by unions and their allies to frame the policy debate.
Labor and Employment Issue Areas
Featured Posts
The Daily Signal
How Many Biden Appointees ‘Burrowed in’ to the Permanent Bureaucracy?
The Daily Signal cited CEI’s expert on political career placements Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also highlighted the threat of…
News Release
April adds 177,000 jobs to economy, tariff policies yet to majorly shakeup labor market: CEI analysis
The job numbers for April show 177,000 jobs were added to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying steady at 4.2 percent. While job growth…
Blog
CEI suggests DOT put the brakes on train two-person crew rule
The Transportation Department recently asked the public for comments on how to reduce the regulatory burden. One thought that the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)…
Search Posts
Blog
House Passes ‘Raise the Wage’ Act
The Raise the Wage Act, which passed the House on Thursday, would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025. The bill now moves…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
Minimum Wage Laws Hurt People
Michigan Capitol Confidential cites CEI’s coalition letter opposing a $15 minimum wage. This morning the Competitive Enterprise Institute mailed a letter to members of…
Politico, Morning Shift
$15 Minimum Wage Vote Today
POLITICO’s Morning Shift cites CEI’s coalition letter opposing a $15 minimum wage. An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the original version of the…
News Release
Minimum Wage Hike Passed by House Democrats Would Put Millions Out of Work
House Democrats today passed a federal minimum wage hike, $7.25 to $15 per hour, though with slim expected chance of gaining Senate passage. Politics aside,…
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Minimum Wage Laws Hurt People
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy cites a recent coalition letter led by CEI to oppose a $15 minimum wage. This morning the…
Blog
‘Raise the Wage Act’ Would Reduce Family Incomes, Increases Unemployment
Democrats view raising the minimum wage as a way to show they are are better for working-class Americans than Republicans. But no matter how high government…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Opposing Raise the Wage Act
Dear Members of Congress: The undersigned organizations urge you to oppose the Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582), which would set a $15 federal minimum…
Marketplace
Labor Department Deregulation Expected to Pick Up Steam After Acosta
Marketplace cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on deregulation efforts from the Department of Labor. “He certainly took what I would say is an…
Reason
At Least 80 Workers Are Losing Their Jobs at This Pennsylvania Steel Plant. Tariffs Are To Blame.
Reason cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on the effects of tariffs. “The layoffs at NLMK were entirely predictable. Tariffs disrupt supply chains…
Blog
Priorities for New Leadership at Department of Labor
There is a new sheriff in town at the Department of Labor. After Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned today from his post, President Trump announced…
InsideSources
One Year After Janus, Conservatives Begin Difficult Campaign to Tackle Union Membership
InsideSources cites CEI on union transparency. A right-leaning think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argues that unions could be more financially transparent about how they use…
The Portland Press Herald
Commentary: A Year After Janus, Many Maine Workers Are Still Unaware of Their Rights
The Portland Press Herald cites CEI on litigation surrounding the Supreme Court’s Janus decision. This is just one example of how unions are…
Blog
State Legislatures Seek to Undermine ‘Janus’ Decision
Labor unions continue to deny the First Amendment rights of public employees despite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which ruled one…
The Boston Globe
Let There Be a Clean Break Between Unions, Nonmembers
The editorial “House gets it mostly right on labor law” misses the mark. The primary provision of the bill that the Globe finds sensible —…
Blog
Post-‘Janus’, Unions Continue Undermining Public Workers’ First Amendment Rights
It has been nearly one year since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the First Amendment rights of public employees, but many members are still having…
Blog
Democrats’ Criticism of Department of Labor Overtime Rule Misguided
Overtime regulation has been a hot topic since the Obama administration proposed and finalized a rule that radically overhauled such requirements. Before this rule, which…
The Washington Times
Kamala Harris Outlines Plan To Penalize Companies That Fail To Close Gender ‘Pay Gaps’
The Washington Times cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on a legislative plan to penalize companies for gender pay disparties. Ryan Young, a senior…
The Tennessee Star
Trump Administration Ends Unions ‘Skimming’ $100 Million A Year From Medicaid
The Tennessee Star cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on Medicaid rule change made by the Trump Administration. “Congress created Medicaid to exclusively fund…
Boston Globe
Unions are on Frontlines of Fight against Inequality
The Boston Globe cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on labor unions. And even when workers are unionized, they are often forced to bargain…
The Center Square
Trump Administration Ends Unions ‘skimming’ $100 Million Per Year from Medicaid
The Center Square cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on labor unions and Medicaid. “Congress created Medicaid to exclusively fund care to the elderly…
Blog
Addressing the Gender Pay Gap: Culture, Not Legislation
Gender discrimination is a complex problem with a complex solution.
Blog
Federal Railroad Administration Withdraws Proposed ‘Featherbedding’ Train Crew Rule
Today, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a draft notice indicating that it will be withdrawing a 2016 proposed rule that would have required trains…
Comment
CEI Comments to DOL on Overtime Rule
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are pleased to submit the following comments on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule on…
Blog
Regulators Find Uber Drivers to Be Independent Contractors
Determining the proper legal worker classification for an individual has become an arduous task. A major reason for the difficulty is a patchwork of federal…
Blog
Hearing Discusses Boosting Union Coercive Powers
Democrats in Congress are pushing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act H.R. 2474, which seeks to strip workers of long-held protections and bolster…
National Review
President Trump Should Rediscover Regulatory Reform
President Trump, who made regulatory reform a priority early in his term, claims to have reduced federal regulatory burdens by $23 billion in fiscal year…
Blog
Trump Administration Ends Homecare Providers Dues Skim
Since 2000, state governments have diverted $1.4 billion from homecare providers and handed it to labor unions, according to the Freedom Foundation. For over a…
Blog
House Democrats Introduce Union Gift Bag Bill
The Protecting Workers’ Right to Organize (PRO) Act puts the interests of labor unions over workers. Each provision of the bill either grants unions greater…
News Release
Trump Administration to End Labor Union Medicaid Dues Skimming
Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services took action to end labor union Medicaid dues skimming, promulgating a rule to fix that problem. The…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to Department of Labor on Intermediate Bodies Rule
Dear Secretary Acosta: As free-market and conservative organizations concerned with protecting worker free choice and ensuring labor union officials are accountable to members, we urge…
Blog
Two-Tier Wage System Highlights Need for Labor Reform
Over the weekend, the eleven-day strike by more than 30,000 Stop & Shop employees ended. The grocery chain announced that it “has reached fair new…
The Washington Examiner
Mcdonald’s Says It Won’t Lobby on Minimum Wage
The Washington Examiner cited Senior Fellow Ryan Young on McDonald’s and minimum wage. “It’s just trying to get good PR,” Ryan Young, senior…
Blog
Union Membership Post-Janus
It has been difficult to gauge the impact of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME. In this ruling, the Supreme Court held…
Blog
Employers Good Deeds Punished by Administrative State
Progressives—Democratic elected officials, community organizers, and labor unions—incessantly disparage employers for failing to provide employees with a living wage, adequate time off, and quality health…
Blog
Sharing Economy Is Opposite of Servant Economy
In a bleak take on the sharing economy, Atlantic writer Alexis C. Madrigal says it has created a “servant economy,” where sharing economy platforms provide…
News Release
CEI Video Ad Tells Florida Taxpayers About Labor Union Subsidy
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is running an online-video ad campaign in Tallahassee to educate Florida taxpayers about legislation to end a longtime subsidy handed out…
Blog
Federal Agency Seeks to Create Direct Path for Ousting Unwanted Unions
National labor policy guarantees employees the right to form a union to promote their interests. There are clear, longstanding rules and procedures that provide a…
Comment
CEI Comments on Proposed Rule Decertification of Representatives
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, I respectfully submit these comments in response to the National Mediation Board’s (NMB) Proposed Rule on the Decertification of…
Blog
Union Subsidy Faces Judicial Scrutiny
“When you’re hired as a teacher, you should be teaching,” said Judge Jose L. Fuentes of the New Jersey Court of Appeals. This statement is…
Blog
Why National Right to Work Act Is Necessary
No worker should be compelled to join or pay dues or fees to a union just to get or keep a job. The U.S. Supreme…
Blog
Democrats Invent New Joint Employer Controversy
There is a new invented controversy involving the National Labor Relations Board’s joint employer rulemaking, which seeks to clarify the definition of joint employer liability…
Blog
Labor Department Issues Proposed Update to Overtime Requirements
Last night, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) long-awaited proposed rule on overtime requirements was unveiled. The DOL intentionally wrote the rule to withstand legal challenge,…
News Release
CEI Comments on New Labor Department Rule on Overtime Pay
The Trump Labor Department put forward a new rule on overtime pay for salaried workers yesterday, that would increase the threshold for overtime eligibility from…
Blog
Federal Labor Ruling Prohibits Unions Charging Non-Members for Lobbying
It has long been the law of the land that labor unions may only collect agency fees, or forced union dues, from non-union members to…
Blog
California Supreme Court Upholds Pension Reform, Punts on ‘California Rule’
On Monday, March 4, the California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld a major provision in the state’s 2012 pension reform legislation, but punted…
Blog
Florida Bill Shines Light on Union Subsidy
Taxpayer dollars should be used to benefit the general public, not special interest groups. Yet, the state of Florida doles out a massive subsidy to…
Blog
What Do Economists Think about the Minimum Wage?
The playwright George Bernard Shaw once said that if you laid all the world’s economists end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. President…
Blog
Labor Officials Dragging Feet on Union Financial Transparency
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), a division within the Department of Labor (DOL), has been generally inactive during the Trump administration, an unfortunate reality…
Blog
Pension Obligation Bonds No Panacea for State Budget Liabilities
Illinois has a new governor and Chicago will soon have a new mayor—and the same old underfunded public pensions. Inheriting a predecessor’s debts is never…
Blog
Warren Buffett Warns about Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities—Again
Would you invest in a state with large unfunded pension liabilities? Warren Buffett likely wouldn’t. In a long interview with CNBC this week, the famed…
