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

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)…

News Release
Escalating trade war with China won’t fix the need for reform: CEI analysis
On Monday, China vowed to retaliate against nations that corporate with President Trump’s tariffs against Beijing, putting potential trade deals between the US and other…
Search Posts
Citation
VIDEO: Legal Immigrants: Problem or Solution?
Alex Nowrasteh of the Competitive Enterprise Institute discusses immigration and job creation on RT TV’s The Alyona Show.
Knox News
TN Tops in Nation on ‘Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index’
Knox News
Political Notebook: Conservative Group Gives TN High Score for Labor Laws
Blog
AP: Obama’s “Jobs” Plan Will Increase Deficit, Is Not “Paid For”
Associated Press fact checkers took issue with President Obama's claims about his new $450 billion federal "jobs" plan: President Barack Obama’s promise Thursday that everything…
Blog
Davis-Bacon, the Pork of the American Jobs Act Boondoggle
Openmarket.org President Obama made the astute observation in his speech that, “the millions of Americans who are watching at home right now, they don’t care…
Blog
Davis-Bacon, the Pork of the American Jobs Act Boondoggle
President Obama observed in his speech that “the millions of Americans who are watching at home right now, they don’t care about politics.” Obama harkened…
Knox News
Immigration is Not Charity
The biggest misconception about immigration is that it is a zero-sum game–that there is a finite number of jobs which immigrants “take” from the…
Knox News
A Plan Better than Obama’s to Create Jobs
Daily Paul
Competitive Enterprise Institute Web Site Measues Union Power in Each State
The Pelican Post
New Web Site Measures the Power and Influence of “Big Labor” in All 50 States
MNFMI
Minnesota Ranks #4 on List of Most Unionized Public Workforces
Blog
Union vs. Union Fight
A band I was in years ago had a song titled, “Sheet Rockers vs. Aluminum Siders,” about a fight our singer saw at work on…
Blog
Obama’s Costly, Unaffordable, Harmful New Stimulus: The “American Jobs Act”
President Obama wants Congress to pass a $447 billion proposal called the "American Jobs Act," a costly set of recycled stimulus plans that contains no new ideas…
The Tennessean
Competitive Enterprise Institute Gives TN High Score for Weak Unions
The Tennessean
Obama’s Costly, Unaffordable, Harmful New Stimulus: The “American Jobs Act”
National Review
What the President Should Say Tonight
Blog
TSA Agent: Be Quiet About Alleged Sexual Assault, or Pay $500,000
Give some people a badge, and the power goes to their head. A TSA agent has threatened to sue a female traveler who complained…
Blog
Do We Really Need Government-Funded Anti-Piracy Training?
Just introduced by New Jersey Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R), the Piracy Suppression Act of 2011 aims to improve U.S. policy with respect to ocean pirates…
Blog
Borzi’s Fiduciary Burden on Broker-Dealers
Openmarket.org Who ought to have greater fiduciary duties: a consumer-selected, paid adviser whose advice is optional, or an adviser who you legally must pay and…
Blog
Borzi’s Fiduciary Burden on Broker-Dealers
Who ought to have greater fiduciary duties: a consumer-selected, paid adviser whose advice is optional, or an adviser who you legally must pay and whose…
Blog
Obama Infrastructure Stimulus: Union Payoff Filled with Rail Boondoggles and Pork
Obama's proposed infrastructure stimulus is a payoff to Big Labor, as economist Ronald Utt explains. It "represents tens of billions of dollars in high,…
Weekly Press
Study: PA Favors Unions, Lags in Business Climate
Blog
Dear Labor, Don’t Fear the Robot
In California, a war is quietly being fought: workers versus technology. And the war has materialized in the form of a bill that seeks…
Blog
Obama’s Ironic, Belated, and Unaffordable Infrastructure “Stimulus”
In a Labor Day speech to an AFL-CIO rally in Detroit, President Obama said that "roads and bridges nationwide need rebuilding and more than…
One News Now
Index of States’ Standing On Big Labor
One News Now
Alex Nowrasteh on Alabama’s Immigration Law
CEI Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh discusees the economic harm from tight immigration restrictions such as Alabama House Bill 56.
New York Post
A Bad Year for Big Labor
One News Now
Institute Claims New Labor Board Rule Will Pressure Workers
The Daily Record
New Study Ranks State High in Government Union Clout
Washington Examiner
Maryland Among Nation’s Most Pro-Union States
GOP Alaska
Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index
GOP Alaska
Alabama’s Immigration Law Is a Train Wreck
On Monday, Federal District Judge Sharon Blackburn temporarily enjoined Alabama’s controversial immigration law (HB 56) for one month, to have enough time to address the…
Maryland Reporter
Maryland Is One of 10 Most Pro-Government Union States
Maryland Reporter
Is (Big) Labor Day Every Day?
News Release
Zero August Job Growth Reflects Anti-Business, Red Tape Climate in Washington
Washington, D.C., September 2, 2011 — Today’s job numbers from the US Department of Labor are downright dismal: the economy failed to add new…
The Wonk Salon
Big Labor vs. the Taxpayers – a New Index
Politico
Collegio Emails
Illinois Policy
Illinois Ranks Next to Last
Maine Freedom Forum
Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index – Maine Ranks #30
Majority in Mississippi
Few Public Sector Workers Belong To Union
Pennsylvania Chamber
New Study Shows Pa. Favors Big Labor Over Taxpayers
Blog
Regulation of the Day 196: Babysitting
This bill will result in a lot of unhappy nights at home for frustrated parents – and a lot less income for sitters who have…
Blog
NLRB’s Pro-Big Labor Ruling Trifecta is Bad News for the Economy
Earlier this year, President Obama proudly touted his executive order calling for federal agencies to review regulations on their books and identify obsolete rules for…
Blog
CEI and Crossroads GPS Announce Launch of Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index
With state governments across the country struggling to balance budgets and fund basic services over the demands of big government unions, the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
Pennsylvania Chamber
Big Labor vs. Taxpayers
For the first time ever, government union members outnumbered those in the private sector in 2009. Until recently,…
Washington Examiner
How to Track Government Union Power Online
Chicago Now
Illinois Ranks Bottom of States With Worst Government Unions Accountability
Public Sector Inc
Ranking Public Union Clout in the States
Common Wealth Foundation
Big Labor’s Stranglehold in Pennsylvania
New York Torch
Nothing to Be Proud Of
News Release
NLRB Rulings Are Gift to Unions, Blow to Economy
Washington, D.C., August 31, 2011 — Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handed down three pro-union rulings that will have significant consequences for…
Blog
Welch vs. Lee: What About Freight?
Libertarian urbanist -- call him a "market urbanist" -- Timothy B. Lee recently had an article at Forbes.com in which he criticized Matt Welch…
New York Torch
Wanted: Alcoholic Truck Drivers
New York Torch
Feds to Trucking Company: You Cannot Fire Alcoholic Drivers
New York Torch
Should We Charge For Immigrant Visas?
New York Torch
EEOC: Drinking History no Reason to Withhold Heavy Trucking Jobs
News Release
CEI and Crossroads GPS Announce Launch of Big Labor vs. Taxpayers Index
WASHINGTON — With state governments across the country struggling to balance budgets and fund basic services over the demands of big government unions, the…
Blog
More Barriers to Job Creation from Obama Administration: Employers Must Hire Alcoholics as Truck Drivers Despite Liability Risk
The president is full of hollow rhetoric about creating jobs, even though his stimulus package destroyed jobs in our export sector and…
New York Torch
Obama Administration: Employers Must Hire Alcoholics as Truck Drivers Despite Liability
New York Torch
Immigration Tariff: Reforming a Broken System
America’s immigration system is broken. Years of overregulation aimed at micromanaging the system has produced nearly 100 different types of visas, each with its…
Blog
NLRB to Businesses: Tell Employees they Can Unionize
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a new rule “requiring most private-sector employers to notify employees of their rights under the National Labor…
New York Torch
Rekindling the Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. is now memorialized with an imposing statue on the D.C. National Mall. While the honor is long overdue, his legacy should…
Blog
Time to Stop Increasing Education Spending?
Even The New York Times is now questioning the massive spending increases on education that have occurred over the last generation in a discussion…
Blog
Eminent Domain, Rick Perry, and the Trans-Texas Corridor
Attorney Alan Ackerman has a post up highlighting and commenting on an article that argues that critics of Texas Governor Rick Perry from the right…
Blog
Deregulate the Practice of Law to Promote Justice and Create Jobs
It's time to deregulate the practice of law, write Clifford Winston and Robert W. Crandall of the Brookings Institution in The Wall Street…
Blog
Today’s Questions for the President
By Peter Kirsanow/National Review Online When you were asked why you didn’t submit your jobs plan before going on vacation, you responded that there was…
Blog
CEI Joins Coalition to Oppose New Air Travel Taxes
Joining Americans for Tax Reform, National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, and others, the Competitive Enterprise Institute signed a letter [PDF]…
Blog
WEAC Demonstrates that Union Solidarity is a Thing of the Past
Openmarket.org The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), Wisconsin’s paramount teachers union, issued layoff notices to 40 percent of its staff. Union bosses blame Gov. Scott…
Blog
WEAC Demonstrates that Union Solidarity is a Thing of the Past
The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), Wisconsin’s paramount teachers union, issued layoff notices to 40 percent of its staff. Union bosses blame Gov. Scott Walkers…
Blog
UAW’s King Aims for Seat on the Board in Ford Negotiations
Openmarket.org United States manufacturing growth hits a two-year low. The stock market is fluctuating violently. Not to mention a steady rate of over 9 percent unemployment.
Blog
UAW’s King Aims for Seat on the Board in Ford Negotiations
United States manufacturing growth hits a two-year low. The stock market is fluctuating violently. Not to mention a steady rate of over 9…
New York Torch
Wisconsin Recall Goes Wrong Way for Labor
Blog
Canada’s PM praises trade pact with Colombia — a good act for President Obama to follow
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with his strong defense of Canada’s trade agreement with Colombia, provides a stark contrast with President Obama’s weak-kneed approach…
Blog
In Wisconsin Recall, Unions Run to Stay in Place
No matter what the outcome of today’s recall election, nothing substantive will change in Wisconsin. Even if organized labor were to sweep all six recall…
Blog
The “Obama Law” Devastates Impoverished People in the World’s Second Poorest Country, The Congo
People are going hungry, pulling their children out of school due to poverty, and joining criminal gangs to make ends meet in the poorest region…
New York Torch
To Create Jobs, Streamline The Issuance Of Visas
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas recently outlined steps that would lower restrictions and regulations…
Blog
The ugly side of Big Labor
The Baltimore Sun On July 10, three Chicago-area Alderwoods funeral homes were viciously vandalized. All were Dignity Memorial network facilities that had also been targeted…
News Release
CEI Commends Rep. Issa’s Decision to Subpoena NLRB
Washington, D.C., August 8, 2011 — Today, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for all documentation regarding the board’s…
New York Torch
Women in the Boardroom
SIR – From an American legal perspective, laws that mandate quotas for women on corporate boards in some European countries seem utterly bizarre (“The…
Products
Fred Smith Discusses Auto Worker Strike on CNN Crossfire
CNN CROSSFIRE, July 13, 1998 HEADLINE: Who Will Give in the Auto Workers Strike that Has Crippled GM? GUESTS: Michael Moore, Fred Smith BYLINE: Bill…
Blog
Hoover Didn’t Cut Spending, and Spending Cuts Didn’t Trigger the 1937 Roosevelt Recession
The false left-wing meme of the day is that the modest spending cuts in Sunday's debt limit deal are bad, because spending cuts caused the…
New York Torch
The Tea Party and a Struggling Economy
Joe Nocera claims that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “cutting spending” in 1937 made the Depression worse. It was not budget cuts but costly liberal court…
Blog
USPS Bailout on the Horizon
Openmarket.org Before we even come close to paying off our current government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or recoup taxpayer dollars from Federal bailouts (General…
Blog
Robert Reich Doesn’t Understand Surface Transportation Funding
Over at Salon, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a predictably empty article on the debt ceiling deal in which he denounces Republicans for…
New York Torch
Newly Exposed Labor Union Manual Advocates Using Intimidation Tactics
New York Torch
Vincent Vernuccio on the Strike at World Trade Center
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the "work stoppage" at the construction site of the new world trade Center building in new York. Vincent…
Blog
License to Rent-Seek
Few regulations are more blatantly anti-competitive than occupational licensing.
Blog
Gender Quotas Spread in Europe, Mandated for Corporate Boards
After Norway adopted gender quotas for corporate boards -- requiring companies to have boards of directors comprised of at least 40 percent women -- large…
Blog
Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
Openmarket.org The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed…
Blog
Legislative Band-Aids Won’t Fix the NLRA
The House will vote on the Jobs Protection from Government Interference Act today. Sponsor Rep. Tim Scott and other representatives of Congress have proposed numerous…
Blog
CEI Podcast for July 28, 2011: Immigration Reform
President Obama made a speech on immigration reform this week. Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh dissects several bills already in Congress that would do just that,…
News Release
CEI to Score Vote on Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act
The House is expected to vote today on a bill that would rein in the overreach of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The…
Blog
Thousands of Jobs and Billions in Wealth Wiped Out by Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Provision
Thanks to the "conflict minerals" provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, thousands of the world's poorest people will lose their jobs. Why? Simply because they…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 187: Pedicabs
The DC City Council wants to require pedicab passengers to wear seatbelts.
New York Torch
AFSCME’s War on Workers & Taxpayers: A Look Inside The AFSCME Playbook
The American Spectator
Obama’s Favorite Union Heavies
Unions thrive on workplace conflict. The AFL-CIO, for example, sponsors a "Bad Boss Contest," which awards the employee who submits the best story…
Blog
Judge Rules against SEIU in Fight with another Union
A judge has ruled that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) improperly benefited from an employer threatening workers with loss of raises in a 2010 election in California…
Bloomberg
‘You’re Fired’ Doesn’t Mean Fired to Four of 10 Air Controllers
Blog
Un-Essential Air Service
Want to get to Vegas from Ely, Nevada? How about a $5,223 plane ticket? Don’t worry. Its price tag is only $149…
Blog
Steve Wynn: Obama is the “Greatest Wet Blanket to Business and Progress and Job Creation in My Lifetime”
Even Democratic businessmen are getting disenchanted with the Obama administration and its knee-jerk hostility to anything that creates jobs or wealth. Las Vegas mogul…