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
Longshoremen stood down when they realized wrecking the economy wasn’t popular
Thursday’s announcement that the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) was ending its strike at east coast and Gulf of Mexico ports after…
News Release
US adds 254,000 jobs in September signaling a strong economy: CEI analysis
The US economy added 254,000 jobs in September, beating out economists’ predictions and indicating that the economy remains strong. While wages continue to rise…
News Release
Union Members Right to Know Act would protect union-worker rights and promote transparency
Three and a half decades after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, the rights afforded by that decision are understood…
Search Posts
Blog
UAW strike epilogue: Big Three will continue to shrink
The United Auto Workers has won, according to the headlines. What the union has won will force three companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, owner…
Blog
NLRB expands ‘joint employer’ rule to include kitchen sink
The National Labor Relations Board has issued its new rule for “joint employer status.” As expected, it extends the rule for when one company…
Blog
Ford-UAW deal: Declare victory and go home
The current United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers has been more of a public relations spectacle than an actual strike. At no…
Washington Times
Supreme Court ruled public sector workers cannot be forced to pay dues; unions take them anyway
In the five years since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers cannot be forced to pay union dues, many…
DC Journal
Counterpoint: Davis-Bacon Requires Pork Spending, Costs Taxpayers Billions
Forcing federally funded public works projects to pay the so-called prevailing wage is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The intention behind…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Going into labor with Sean Higgins
In this week’s episode we talk about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s legal fate, rising economic might in India, terrible federal…
Blog
As Predicted, UAW Strike Remains Limited, Spares Automakers From Full Walkout
It only took about three weeks, but mainstream journalists are becoming aware of something the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been pointing out from the start:…
News Release
Economy adds 336k jobs in September, with implications for unions, job-seekers, and Fed interest rate decisions: CEI analysis
The economy added 336,000 jobs in the month of September, according to just-released government numbers. CEI experts expect this means opportunities for labor unions,…
Blog
The year of strikes ain’t over yet
2023 has had the most major labor strikes the country has seen in decades, with likely more to come. Unions leaders are itching to do…
Blog
UAW’s Fain says new strike strategy has produced no ‘meaningful progress’
UAW President Shawn Fain announced Friday that the union would expand its strike against Ford and GM. Fain said an additional 7,000 members…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: unemployment that works with Matt Darling
In this week’s episode we talk about banning plastic gift cards in California, the solution to Germany’s energy crisis, the political…
Washington Examiner
UAW strike: What the media won’t tell you about the strike
One of the things that liberal groups, unions included, have been good at is creating a narrative and selling that to the …
Blog
UAW strike mostly a PR move
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is making much of the fact that the union is currently engaged in its first-ever strike against three…
Blog
Will COVID-era work-from-home flexibility disappear?
The question of how many Americans are going to continue working remotely, post-COVID, is back in the news again (if, indeed, it ever left).
Blog
United Auto Workers want a bigger slice of a shrinking pie
If the United Auto Workers go on strike this week – and as I write this it appears as though they will – it…
DC Journal
Point: This Labor Day, Don’t Let Pols Take Credit for Economy
Workers have much to celebrate this Labor Day. Unemployment is near its lowest level since the 1960s, and real wages are growing again. Post-pandemic inflation…
Fox News
This Labor Day, let’s get real about how things have gotten better for workers in the USA
The nature of employment has changed in the last decade more than many people might realize. More of us work from home. More of us…
The Hill
My job, my choice: The National Labor Relations Act does not require unionization
It’s been just shy of a century since the National Labor Relations Act was signed into law, guaranteeing workers nationwide the right to bargain collectively.
Blog
An invitation for union organizers to cheat in elections
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a new rule for union organizing elections that says the election will go ahead even when there…
News Release
187,000 jobs added in August 2023, with more people trying to get back to work: CEI analysis
The U.S. economy added 187,000 jobs in August 2023, and the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent, according to data released Friday by the…
Blog
Biden administration working overtime to regulate working overtime
The Biden administration issued a new rule this week that vastly expands of the number of workers covered by federal overtime rules. While some…
The Washington Examiner
10% tariff, 100% bad idea
Former President Donald Trump recently pledged to enact a universal 10% tariff on all imports if he regains the presidency. His…
National Review
How to Help Discouraged Working-Age Men
More blue-collar American men aged 25–54 than ever are no longer employed and seeking work. That sad trend started in the late 1960s, coinciding…
American Banker
Reach out to employees before unionizing becomes an issue
With labor making a bid to unionize the financial services sector, management should proceed with the utmost delicacy. The National Labor Relations Act is almost…
Blog
Work, dignity, and the common good
Many on the right (especially self-described “national conservatives”) say that there is no “dignified work” for Americans today. What they mean by this is,…
News Release
Biden Labor Department offers new rule on “prevailing wages” that is less accurate
The Biden Labor Department today announced the issuance of the final rule making changes to Davis-Bacon Act labor regulations, ostensibly aimed at helping construction…
Washington Examiner
Labor Department to issue pro-union final rule on construction worker pay: Report
Washington Examiner cites CEI’s Sean Higgins on union regulations: Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner that the key…
News Release
Economy adds 187,000 jobs in July 2023: CEI analysis
The U.S. economy added 187,000 jobs in July, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not spectacular but not bad, say CEI…
Blog
What you don’t know about the Wagner Act
What stance does the National Labor Relation Act, the main federal law regarding union rights, take towards workers joining unions? A long-held article of…
Blog
The Paycheck Protection Act gives Congress a chance to defend the little guy
Freshman Missouri congressman Eric Burlison (R) has introduced legislation called the Paycheck Protection Act. The act, a project of the nonprofit American Legislative…
Study
The Forgotten History of the Wagner Act
Introduction President Joe Biden on April 26, 2021, announced the creation of a special Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. The purpose of the…
News Release
Report disputes role of federal government in labor union participation, reveals forgotten purpose of the National Labor Relations Act
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report disputes claims by President Biden and others that the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) directs the federal…
Blog
Hollywood and the collateral damage of strikes
The current Hollywood strike by writers and actors has forced several others who don’t have an issue with the studios to stop working.
Blog
Teamsters’ UPS win suggests more strikes coming
Tuesday’s announcement that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS have agreed on a contract is a likely sign that strikes and other union…
Comment
Procedures for Previously Exempt State and Local Government Employee Complaints of Employment Discrimination under Section 304 of the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991, RIN 3046-AB09
Submitted via Regulations.gov RE: Procedures for Previously Exempt State and Local Government Employee Complaints of Employment Discrimination under Section 304 of the Government Employee Rights…
Daily Caller
SEAN HIGGINS: Hollywood Unions Are Getting A Bitter Dose Of Reality
The current strike by Hollywood writers and actors is a reactionary, rear-guard effort against changes in technology. The members of the WGA (Writers Guild of…
Blog
Actors and writers unions are fighting technological change. Expect change to win.
The current strike by Hollywood writers and actors is a reactionary, rear-guard effort against changes in technology. The members of the WGA (Writers Guild of…
Blog
The Teamsters want UPS drivers to go on strike
UPS’s drivers will likely go on strike at the end of the month. It would be a huge disruption to the broader economy – and…
News Release
Economy adds 209,000 jobs in June, fewer than expected: CEI analysis
The U.S. economy added just 209,000 jobs in June 2023, under-performing compared to expectations. CEI economy and labor experts offer analysis on what this…
Blog
Wall Street doesn’t want to come back to the office
The continuing saga of remote versus in-office work acquired a new data point recently when Bloomberg released its latest Markets Live Pulse survey, which…
Blog
Supreme Court’s Janus case 5 years later: Workers are invoking their rights
A common argument made by unions and their allies is that workers want to belong to unions but that big business uses all manner of…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: importing talent with Connor O’Brien
In this week’s episode we talk about the major income tax case going to the Supreme Court, the looming death of ESG…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Opposing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act
Dear Chairman Sanders; Ranking Member Cassidy; and Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – On behalf of the millions of…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: online trust with Taylor Barkley
In this week’s episode we talk about a survey on work trends for finance bros, Delta’s questionable bid to become the first…
Blog
Younger workers don’t favor full-remote work
Among people who follow the news on workplace (and workforce) satisfaction, the opinions of younger workers are often considered especially relevant, because we assume that…
Forbes
Biden’s Top-Down Economy, Powered By Executive Action
Joe Biden didn’t take a Juneteenth break, instead heading to Palo Alto to tout “historic action to combat the climate crisis,…
Blog
Why Trump and Biden are wrong to sweat a trade deficit
Do trade deficits make American workers worse off? Trade deficits occur when a country imports more goods than it exports, which the U.S. has done…
News Release
Labor Market Remains Strong Despite Participation Rate Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) at the Department of Labor found employers added 339,000 new jobs in May, according to a new report.
Discourse
How Can You Advocate for Abundance with Skeptics?
Advocating for abundance will succeed or fail based on how well we address skeptics’ real emotions, legitimate concerns and understandable fears. Far too often, supporters…
News Release
253,000 Jobs Added in April 2023, but Labor Force Participation Lags
The U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the labor force participation rate remains troubling,…
