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
Free the Economy podcast: Questioning the AI jobs doomsday with Sean Higgins
In this week’s episode we cover making home appliances great again, fighting price controls on health care, research on AI-fueled…
Blog
Why Big Tech is postponing the AI jobs doomsday
The heads of big tech have recently changed their tune regarding artificial intelligence’s effect on jobs. The emerging technology will bolster the workforce,…
Study
Don’t Panic: A Skeptic’s Guide to the AI Jobs Doomsday
As technology advances it has periodically bred the fear that progress will destroy jobs and livelihoods. History teaches that these fears are usually misplaced.
Search Posts
Blog
Proposed Labor Law Overhaul Would Decrease Worker Choice, Increase Union Power
The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report that calls for an overhaul of U.S. labor law. It cites increasing income inequality and dwindling…
The Daily Signal
The Sneaky Way Public Unions Are Getting Tax Dollars for Union Activities
Taxpayers expect their government to spend tax dollars wisely, on activities that benefit the public. But across the country, governments at all levels give away…
News Release
CEI Expert: Devastating Overtime Rule Must be Delayed
This week, the House will consider Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-Mich.) Regulatory Relief for Small Businesses, Schools, and Nonprofits Act (H.R.6094), which delays the implementation…
Blog
House Considers Bill Delaying Department of Labor’s Overtime Rule
Today, the House Rules Committee will consider Representative Tim Walberg’s bill to delay implementation of the Department of Labor’s overtime rule.
InsideSources
House Republicans Fight to Delay Obama’s Overtime Rule
InsideSources discusses the overtime pay rule with Trey Kovacs. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has been one of several policy groups expressing concern over…
Blog
How the Next President Can Improve Labor and Employment Policy
With the presidential election heading into the first debate, what can the next president do to improve national labor and employment policy?…
Blog
RIP Reed Larson
Don’t have to pay union dues? You can probably thank Reed Larson.
Blog
Wells Fargo and the Principal-Agent Problem
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has celebrated the $100 million fine it has imposed on San Francisco bank Wells Fargo for its employees’ improper handling…
Blog
Arizona Supreme Court Rules Taxpayers Should Be Forced to Subsidize Government Unions
Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court determined that there is no better way to spend tax dollars than to give them to government unions so that…
Blog
Destroying the Marketplace in Education
The federal government happily subsidizes awful state colleges that graduate few if any of their students.
News Release
CEI Criticizes Arizona Supreme Court Ruling Against Taxpayers, For Labor Unions
Taxpayers must still pay for labor union activities as a result of a ruling today by the Arizona Supreme Court. CEI labor policy expert Trey Kovacs…
Blog
Three Fast Food Favorites from Franchises
It’s no secret that flexibility and freedom to experiment foster creativity.
Blog
Michigan State Legislator Introduces Worker’s Choice Bill
Yesterday, a state representative from Michigan introduced novel legislation that would provide public-sector workers’ choice.
Blog
Work Is Changing, Employment Regulation Needs to Change Too
For many people, the 9 to 5, office- or factory-based, corporate job that Dolly Parton lamented in the 1980s is a thing of the past.
Blog
Texas Constitution Bans Taxpayer Subsidies to Private Parties
It may seem obvious, but tax dollars are supposed to be used for purely public purposes, not the private benefit of an individual, corporation, or…
Investor's Business Daily
Regulators Want You Punching The Clock On A Smartphone App
It's not your grandfather's workplace anymore. As anybody who has worked for 20 or more years will tell you, the world of work has…
Politico
AFL-CIO poll: Trump not wooing union members
Politico's Morning Shift highlights Iain Murray's report on regulations threatening flexible work arrangements and innovation. The conservative-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute is out with…
Forbes
Bosses, Timecards, and Other Relics Of The 20th Century
Believe it or not, working at corporations for the majority of one’s career is a relatively recent phenomenon. For centuries, people worked as generalists, often…
News Release
Report: Regulators Threaten Worker Opportunities, Aspirations
Regulators are taking action against the work preferences and aspirations of people in 21st Century America, according to a new Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) report…
Study
Punching the Clock on a Smartphone App?
View Full Document as PDF Should your boss tell you how to vote? To even ask the question is absurd today, but…
Blog
Labor Day Highlights Need for Labor Law Reform
Labor Day is a time when we show respect and celebrate the achievements of American workers. However, a better way to respect workers this Labor…
Inside Sources
Time to pare back union legal privileges
With Labor Day around the corner, a traditional holiday honoring American workers, it’s an apt time to take a hard look at the value of…
Blog
National Right to Work Committee Wrong on Air Traffic Control Reform
The handful of conservative critics of air traffic control reform get the facts all wrong.
Blog
For Affordable Housing, Ditch Prevailing Wage Laws
For residents of some of the nation’s major cities, it’s hardly news that housing costs are high, with little likelihood of their coming down any…
The Hill
One year later, Congress still needs to reverse NLRB joint employer standard
With economic recovery and job creation still hurting, Congress should make it a priority this September, when they are back in session, to take action…
Blog
Problems Ahead for Grad Student Unionizing
There seems to be an Obama administration wide dictate to ensure as many individuals as possible are to be considered employees. The reason for this…
Blog
NLRB’s New Joint Employer Standard Strikes Again
Just about one year ago, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dramatically changed the rules on how companies are allowed to contract with other businesses…
Blog
Government Wage Mandates Bad for Business and Workers
Wage and hour mandates have seen an uptick of late at the federal, state, and local level.
Blog
Learn Your Workplace Rights with National Employee Freedom Week
The supposedly non-partisan NLRB is woefully inadequate in educating workers on their rights related to opting out of paying full-fledged union dues.
The Washington Free Beacon
Survey: 3 in 10 Union Members Want Out
The Washington Free Beacon discusses National Employee Freedom Week with Trey Kovacs. Trey Kovacs, a labor expert at the free market Competitive Enterprise…
Washington Examiner
One in four union members favors right-to-work
Washington Examiner discusses National Employee Freedom Week with Trey Kovacs. "National Employee Freedom Week is a crucial public service to counteract this assault…
News Release
Survey: One-Third of Union Workers Would Opt Out of Membership
A new survey shows nearly 30 percent of union members nationwide would opt out of union membership if they knew they could keep their job…
Blog
West Virginia Court Blocks “Right-to-Work” Law, Restricts Worker Choice
Workers in the state to have most recently enacted right to work, West Virginia, have lost their freedom to choose whether or not to financially…
Trib Live
Saturday Q&A: How NLRB muddled the joint employer standard
Trey Kovacs is a policy analyst focusing on labor issues for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. He spoke to the Trib…
Bloomberg BNA
DOL’s Perez Walks Election Tightrope as Clinton Supporter
Bloomberg BNA speaks with Trey Kovacs on the head of the Labor Department's plans to travel to campaign on labor issues. The labor secretary…
Blog
Tepid Economic Performance Argues for Cutting Government Red Tape
How is the economy doing? It’s a mixed picture.
Blog
Joint Employer Liability Stifles Small Business
In Hillary Clinton’s nomination acceptance speech at the DNC convention, she said “Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks.” Obtaining financing…
Fox Business
One Year Later, the Joint Employer Standard Still Causing Confusion
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Browning-Ferris decision, which radically redefined employment rules for businesses nationwide. Under the…
Blog
The Long Term Strategy Behind the Department of Labor’s Overtime Rule
It’s not often that proponents of labor regulation proponents admit to how forceful the rules have become. Yesterday, however, we had the benefit of one…
Blog
Cooperative Agreement on Wage and Hour Rules Could Backfire on Employers
As I discussed earlier this week, Subway came to terms with the Department of Labor (DOL) in what is being considered a cooperative agreement. Its…
Reason
Ridiculous Rules For Swordfish, Ceiling Fans, Grain Barges Help Make 2016 The Most Highly Regulated Year In History
Reason discusses the size of the federal regulatory state with Ryan Young and Wayne Crews. Ryan Young, a fellow with the Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Corporate Social Responsibility Policies May Suffer under “Joint Employer” Standard
Companies adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies has been in vogue for a while now. According to the Financial Times, in 2014, U.S. and UK…
Politico
Legal challenges to minimum wage hikes
Politico's Morning Shift highlights Trey Kovac's report on how the National Labor Relations Board's joint employer standard eliminates jobs. The broadened joint employer standard…
Law 360
Think Tank Says NLRB Joint Employer Rule Harmful To Biz
Law 360 highlights Trey Kovacs's report on the National Labor Relations Board's new joint employer standard. Competitive Enterprise Institute's report called on Congress…
Inside Sources
REPORT: Joint-Employment Could Upend Unsuspecting Businesses
Inside Sources highlights Trey Kovacs's report on the unsuspecting ways the National Labor Relations Board's joint employer rule could impact businesses. The National Labor…
News Release
Report: Businesses Exposed to Unexpected Liabilities from Obama Joint Employer Regulations
A Competitive Enterprise Institute report released today reveals a set of unexpected liabilities American businesses and employers will face in the wake of recent changes…
Study
Redefining Workers out of a Job
View Document as PDF Federal agencies should be cautious when overturning established policies. Doing so creates uncertainty and frequently generates unintended consequences.
Blog
Subway Labor Agreement Could Lead to Problematic “Joint Employer” Status
It has been just about one year since the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision that rocked the franchise-franchisee world, which dramatically altered…
Washington Times
Preserving the right to work
Labor unions are aggressively filing lawsuits against right-to-work laws across the nation. Currently, in Idaho, Indiana, Wisconsin and West Virginia, organized labor is challenging workers’…
Nation's Restaurant News
Subway reaches labor deal with regulators
Nation's Restaurant News discusses the National Labor Relation Board's joint employer standard with Trey Kovacs. Trey Kovacs, a policy analyst for the free-market…
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