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
Blog
DOL gets flexible on overtime
The Department of Labor (DOL) will formally reverse a Biden-era rule that expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime on Friday. Courts had…
News Release
Economy added 115,000 jobs in April, modest boost amidst economic uncertainty: CEI analysis
The jobs report for April shows 115,000 jobs were added to the economy, a modest boost compared to previous months. While unemployment remains unchanged…
Blog
The party is over for Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Of all the Trump administration cabinet officials who have exited early and unceremoniously, Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer can arguably be…
Search Posts
Op-Eds
Beyond Tom Perez: Why do we need a Labor Department?
Well, America survived. Yes, it’s true, the United States was able to withstand two months without a labor secretary. The previous secretary, Hilda Solis, stepped…
Blog
Sorry, Progressives, But The ASCE Infrastructure Grade Boost Wasn’t The Result Of Obama’s “Stimulus”
I am generally very skeptical of the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) "Report Card for America's Infrastructure," as this self-interested group 1) gives…
Blog
Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
Blog
Unions euthanize nursing homes
The Washington Examiner Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their…
Op-Eds
Unions euthanize nursing homes
Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their care. Others —…
Blog
SEC Charges Illinois With Securities Fraud And Lets It Off With A Warning
This week, Illinois became only the second state in U.S. history to by charged with securities fraud by federal regulators (New Jersey was the first,…
Blog
Federal Pay Freeze Was Really A Pay Slowdown
The Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson argues that Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget “ignores” a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But Jamieson also ignores…
Blog
Will Regulators Fail To Learn From The Past Mistakes Of U.S. Railroad Regulation?
The history of U.S. railroads provides an interesting case study on federal regulation. They were the first sector of the economy to come under heavy…
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 7, 2013: The Three-Sided Immigration Debate
Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier recently wrote for USA Today about a third side in the ongoing immigration debate: population control advocates who oppose immigration…
Blog
Obama’s Immigration Bill Forces Employers To Pay Illegal Immigrants
Nothing in this headline is a typo or an exaggeration. President Obama’s recently-leaked Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2013 would require employers to employ…
Blog
Costco CEO Favors Minimum Wage Hike
An overlooked argument in the minimum wage debate is that a high minimum wage gives big businesses an artificial competitive advantage over their smaller competitors.
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Should Treat People As Individuals, Not Groups
Private discrimination based on national origin has been prohibited in the United States since 1965, yet the United States government continues to discriminate based on…
Op-Eds
The Third Side of the Immigration Debate
Viewed from afar, America’s immigration debate appears to center on two groups: liberals whose primary concern is the welfare of immigrants and conservatives whose primary…
Blog
E-Verify: Opening The Door For More Regulations
President Obama and the Gang of Eight senators want E-Verify -- the electronic employment verification system -- included in any comprehensive immigration reform proposal this…
Blog
Cut spending: Permanently furlough ‘official time’ workers
By Matt Patterson and Trey Kovacs, The Washington Times As politicians of both parties ride through the country Paul Revere-like in their warning…
Blog
Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
Openmarket.org We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an…
Blog
Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an acorn.
Blog
Progressives Should Be Wary Of A Minimum Wage Increase
Over at the American Spectator, I argue that progressives should look elsewhere for ways to help the poor:…
Blog
Wells Fargo Economists: Sequestration Helps The Economy In The Long Run
Yet again, the Obama administration is busy engaging in scare tactics about sequestration, inflating its impact on the government and the country (to the point…
US News
Government Office, Government Pay…Union Duties?
When President Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act in 1978, he said he did so to "promote the general welfare, contribute to the effective…
PJ Media
Here’s to Austerity: Last Day Until Sequestration
Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute wrote on February 25 that these cuts are good. The Cato Institute describes why most of these cuts…
Washington Times
Cut spending: Permanently furlough ‘official time’ workers
As politicians of both parties ride through the country Paul Revere-like in their warning about the dire consequences of the looming automatic spending cuts coming…
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Violate Americans’ Liberty
Immigration restrictions are more than just violations of the liberties of foreigners. Truly a society that restricts the freedom of certain groups restricts the freedom…
Blog
National ID, By Itself, Violates Liberty
As I have pointed out over the past month and The Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of…
Blog
Europe’s Latest Wake-Up Call: Italian Elections
Europe, which has been enjoying a recent respite from financial chaos, is about to get a rude awakening: Italian elections. Voters will go to the…
Blog
Free Trade Si, Regulatory Harmonization No
Politics ruins everything, and in few areas is that truer than in international trade. Over the last two decades, the term "trade agreement" has become…
Letters
Coalition Letter Opposing E-Verify Mandate
CEI has sent a letter to Congress opposing a mandatory national E-Verify electronic employment verification system. Over 40 organizations signed onto the letter, which suggests…
News Release
Diverse Coalition Opposes E-Verify Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 21, 2013 – This Thursday, an ideologically-diverse coalition of forty-five organizations led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Small Business Association,…
National Center for Policy Analysis
Taxpayers Pay for Employees to Engage in Union Activities
Around the country, labor unions are financed by taxpayers. The practice, known as "official time" at the federal level and "release time" at the state…
Blog
Stirrings of Pension Reform in Montana
Pension obligations’ strains on state budgets have made pension reform a priority for state policy makers across the nation. Over the last couple of…
Blog
CalPERS: Model Of Pension Dysfunction
Few state governments are as in as much fiscal trouble as California's, so it's not surprising that few state pension funds have been as mismanaged…
Letters
Official Time Labor Coalition Letter
Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer dime, under a little-known policy called…
Blog
On Selective Memory And Pretending To Care About Illegal Immigration
In immigration policy circles, there’s one thing no one wants to repeat: 1986. Anti-immigration groups call the now-infamous Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) “the…
News Release
Landmark Bill Would End Taxpayer Handout to Gov’t Unions
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 14, 2013 – Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer…
Blog
“King” Of Nowhere: UAW Chief Makes Noise, Not War
Poor Bob King. Perhaps no other union leader presides over an organization in such stark decline as the United Auto Workers. At its peak in 1979, the UAW boasted…
Blog
An Unconstitutional Gift To Labor Unions
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New Jersey Senate has only passed one bill associated with rebuilding storm-damaged public infrastructure. Sadly, if passed, the…
Blog
“King” Of Nowhere: UAW Chief Makes Noise, Not War
Openmarket.org Poor Bob King. Perhaps no other union leader presides over an organization in such stark decline as the United Auto Workers (UAW). At its peak in 1979,…
Blog
Obama Renews Call For Paycheck Fairness Act
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama renewed his call for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it…
Blog
Immigration Reform’s Economic Benefits
Comprehensive immigration reform is coming. For those that don’t speak D.C. doublespeak, that means more costly, useless, and privacy-invading border drones, more guards…
Products
E-Verify Problems and Solutions
Blog
Sequester Budget Cuts Would Increase Long-Term Economic Growth
The automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will increase economic growth in the long-term, if Congress will just let them happen—rather than listening to…
National Post
Frum Wrong About Budget Cuts
David Frum claims modest automatic budget cuts scheduled to go into effect in the U.S.A. in March will somehow harm the economy if they aren’t…
Blog
‘Blunting’ the decline of unions
New York Post Some say the organized-labor movement is going to pot — but at least one union is looking to pot for its…
National Post
Marco Rubio immigration bill sneaks in database expansions
“Using employers as a fourth arm of the government is not the framework that the founders of this country envisioned when they created the Constitution,”…
National Post
‘Blunting’ the decline of unions
Some say the organized-labor movement is going to pot — but at least one union is looking to pot for its salvation. US labor unions…
Blog
CEI In The Wall Street Journal: E-Verify Is A Threat To Liberty
CEI founder Fred Smith co-authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today on E-Verify — the electronic employment verification system that will likely…
Blog
National ID Proponents’ Bad Arguments
America’s new national identification system is coming. President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators want to enact a national identification card that would…
Wall Street Journal
E-Verify’s ‘Hang Everyone’ Approach
This op-ed was coauthored by Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office If you hang everyone, the old saying goes, you…
Blog
House GOP May Want Legal Pathway For All Immigrants, Not Just Those Here Illegally
Everyone knows the major obstacle to immigration reform will be legalization for the 11.1 million people in the United States who have overstayed visas or…
Blog
Former California SEIU Boss Convicted Of Embezzlement; What Did SEIU’s National Leadership Know?
While the January 28 conviction for embezzlement of Tyrone Freeman, the former president of the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) largest local in California (and second largest…
Blog
“Color” Them Bad: Restaurant Shakedown Group Suddenly An Expert On Ethics
Openmarket.org There’s a hilarious sketch in the comedy show “Portlandia” that features a painfully liberal couple attempting to order a meal in a restaurant. Unfortunately,…
Blog
Will Courts Make Scofflaw NLRB Follow The Law?
The January 25 decision by the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, which declared that three…
Blog
“Color” Them Bad: Restaurant Shakedown Group Suddenly An Expert On Ethics
There's a hilarious sketch in the comedy show "Portlandia" that features a painfully liberal couple attempting to order a meal in a restaurant. Unfortunately,…
Blog
The Case Against The McDonnell Transportation Plan
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan is on life support after two proposed alternatives died yesterday in the Senate. Only McDonnell’s plan, slightly modified…
Blog
Bureaucrat Busybodies Make Nobody Busy
Last Friday, the unemployment rate crept up to 7.9 percent. Ironically, this news came a day after members of the Council on…
Study
Official Time: Taxpayers paying for union work is officially a scam
Summary: Few Americans are aware that, through their tax dollars, they finance labor unions through a practice known as “official time” or “release time.” The…
Blog
Official Time: Taxpayers paying for union work is officially a scam
Capital Research Center Summary: Few Americans are aware that, through their tax dollars, they finance labor unions through a practice known as “official time” or…
Wall Street Journal
Bill would halt taxpayer-funded union activism
Matt Patterson, a labor policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in Washington D.C., told Watchdog.org that the union racket attached to “official time”…
Blog
The New National Identification System Is Coming
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card -- or an enhanced Social Security…
Blog
CEI Podcast For January 31, 2013: The Recess Appointments That Weren’t
Federal judges recently struck down four recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming the Senate was in pro forma session when President Obama…
Blog
“Right-To-Work” Train Rolls On: Next Stop, Pennsylvania?
The earthquake that was Michigan's right-to-work law has produced a number of interesting aftershocks, not least of which is the right-to-work rumbling in Pennsylvania where…
Blog
“Right-To-Work” Train Rolls On: Next Stop, Pennsylvania?
Openmarket.org The earthquake that was Michigan’s right-to-work law has produced a number of interesting aftershocks, not least of which is the right-to-work rumbling in Pennsylvania…
Blog
Unions Bad For Unions?
Openmarket.org Hard to believe, but even under the most union-friendly president since FDR, organized labor in America continues to shrink in numbers, popularity and…
Blog
LaHood Out At DOT, But Is There Hope For A Qualified Transportation Secretary?
After months of confusing double-talk on whether or not he would stay on in a second Obama term, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced he…
Blog
Unions Bad For Unions?
Hard to believe, but even under the most union-friendly president since FDR, organized labor in America continues to shrink in numbers, popularity and influence.
Blog
New Study Links Anti-Immigration Groups To Pro–Population Control Environmentalists
America's immigration debate is heating up, and conservatives anxious about liberal solutions to the issue are looking for answers of their own. Unfortunately, the major…
Blog
6 Ways To Improve The Senate’s Immigration Proposal
“We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited.” That’s from a…
Blog
‘Right-To-Work’ All Right In Indiana
Controversial anti-union laws continue to thrust the typically camera-shy Midwest into the national spotlight. On January 17, a federal judge shot down a union-driven lawsuit…
Blog
Obama Administration Thumbs Nose At Court Ruling On Separation Of Powers
Thumbing its nose at the federal courts, which ruled today President Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board last year were not…
Blog
It’s Official: Obama’s NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional
From the Duh! files: A federal appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate…
Blog
It’s Official: Obama’s NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional
Openmarket.org From the Duh! files: A federal appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to…
Blog
CEI Podcast For January 24, 2013: Gov. McDonnell’s Transportation Plan
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell recently released a headline-grabbing plan for the state's transportation funding that would abolish the state's gasoline tax and raise other taxes…
Blog
Adam Smith’s Recommendation To End Illegal Immigration
Restrictions on immigration have created a black market in labor and movement. Currently, the U.S. government issues only 10,000 green cards to workers who lack higher…
Blog
Walker, Wisconsin Ranger (Strikes Again)
Openmarket.org It’s almost too beautiful to believe. In this era of ever-expanding government power, of rising and risible rapacity in the federal Leviathan, can…
Blog
Walker, Wisconsin Ranger (Strikes Again)
It’s almost too beautiful to believe. In this era of ever-expanding government power, of rising and risible rapacity in the federal Leviathan, can it really…
Blog
New Jersey State Senate Pushes Union Giveaway in Project Labor Agreement Bill
The extent and huge costs of the damage from Hurricane Sandy to New Jersey should make rebuilding the worst affected areas…
The Hill
Right seeks to further weaken NLRB
Last week, The Hill’s Congress blog published two opinion pieces, by Fred Wszolek of the anti-union Workforce Fairness Institute and Trey Kovaks of the libertarian…
The Hill
Coming to America? It’s Going to Cost You
Meanwhile, even unauthorized immigrants from Central America pay between $7,000 and $10,000 in smuggling fees to get across the border, according…
Blog
TSA’s Body Scanner Shuffle Continues, Agency Still Flouts The Law On Body Scanners
A great deal of news coverage today has been given to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) decision to remove backscatter X-ray strip-search machines from U.S.
Blog
Partisanship perverts the NLRB
The Hill When former SEIU Associate General Counsel Craig Becker left his post at the National Labor Relations Board in December 2011, he quickly…
The Hill
Partisanship Perverts the NLRB
When former SEIU Associate General Counsel Craig Becker left his post at the National Labor Relations Board in December 2011, he quickly segued into a…
Blog
Vive la Liberte! Even France Liberalizing Its Labor Laws
It may not be enough to make Lafayette proud, but it’s good news all the same. The New York Times reports: French labor…
Blog
Vive la Liberte! Even France Liberalizing Its Labor Laws
Openmarket.org It may not be enough to make Lafayette proud, but it’s good news all the same. The New York Times reports: French labor unions and business…
Blog
Worthwhile Pension Reform Proposal in the Old Dominion
When trying to get out of a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. When the hole is a state pension deficit,…
Blog
Obamacare Imposes New Fees, Cost Increases On The Public
Obamacare was sold to the public based on the fallacy that it would cut healthcare costs, but each month brings additional evidence that it…
Blog
How About Some Intellectual Diversity At The Labor Department?
As the cabinet turns: Hilda Solis announced this week that she will soon be stepping down from her post as secretary of labor. Solis, a…
The Hill
E-Verify: Immigration Reform’s Threat To Legal Workers
Ken Nagel thought it would be no problem to hire his daughter at his Phoenix restaurant. He had not considered that Arizona’s new employment verification…
Blog
Feds Say Hybrid Electric Vehicles Too Quiet, Noisemakers Should Be Mandated
Green paternalists often gush about the great potential for hybrid electric automobiles to reduce negative externalities, or social costs, such as local air pollution and…
Blog
Update On D.C.’s Driverless Car Legalization Legislation
In November, I noted in The Washington Post and here on Open Market that a bill introduced in the D.C. Council contained two dangerously flawed provisions and…
Blog
Chicago Voters Reelect Legally Insane Judge
In November, Chicago voters re-elected a legally insane judge charged with a crime of violence. "The Cook County Democratic Party…
Blog
The Great California Government Union Swindle
Are government employees overpaid? A six-part Bloomberg report answers that question with a resounding "Yes." It also singles out one state as the biggest spender…
Blog
Stuck in Time: Italy’s Politics
Things have a way of repeating themselves. This is especially true in Italy, where politics have been stuck in a time loop for the…
Blog
Panel Discussion: The State Of Labor
Michigan's new right-to-work law and the state of organized labor in both the private and public sectors dominated discussion Thursday at "The State of…
The American Spectator
We Cheer for Michigan
What a difference. This week’s enactment of a right to work law by Michigan lawmakers comes only three years after the 2009 government-directed bankruptcies of…
Hot Air
Forced unionization of in-home care workers back on Minnesota agenda
Open Market’s Trey Kovacs explained this at the time: To unionize a class of workers, Minnesota’s Labor Relations Act calls for a majority of workers…
Forbes
Can Union Backed Crowdfunding Rescue Hostess From Bankruptcy?
By now you’ve heard at least two opposing versions of the Tale of the Tearful Twinkies. In the first, a great American brand was driven…
Blog
Right-To-Work Laws Aren’t Perfect, But They’re Better Than The Likely Alternative
On more than one occasion, I’ve heard some libertarians object to right-to-work laws on the grounds that they undermine freedom of contract by barring employers…
Blog
Sierra Club Transportation Report Unsurprisingly Trashes (Some Bad) Road Projects, Praises Transit And Bike Waste
The Sierra Club's Beyond Oil Campaign recently released a report [PDF] highlighting what the environmentalist group claims to be the 50 best and worst…
Blog
Obama’s Dangerous Italian Labor Rhetoric
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="260"] President Obama spoke in Detroit on Monday[/caption] President Obama condemned yesterday Michigan’s forthcoming transition to a right-to-work state. He claimed,…
Blog
Big Labor’s Choice: Improve And Evolve, or Perish
Over the past year, the Midwest has had a pro-worker epiphany, a movement now reaching its crescendo with the imminent passage of right-to-work legislation in…
Staff & Scholars
Sean Higgins
Research Fellow
- Deregulation
- Labor and Employment
Ryan Young
Senior Economist and Director of Publications
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Ivan Osorio
Editorial Director
- Labor and Employment
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International