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
Inflation increased by 0.2 percent in November but year-over-year inflation remains above the Fed’s target
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for November showed a 0.2 percent increase in inflation across all sectors, lower than market expectations. But the…
News Release
US economy added 64,000 jobs in November but underemployment and stagflation cause concern: CEI analysis
The US Labor Department released its report today on jobs added to the economy in November 2025, a modest gain. But underemployment and the…
Blog
Court rejects New York bid to take over federal labor enforcement
An effort by the New York legislature to usurp the role of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency,…
Search Posts
Products
Study: Collective Bargaining Slows Economic Growth, Lowers Wages
Collective bargaining may not be the boon for workers that labor unions claim it is, according to a new study. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI),…
Study
The Unintended Consequences of Collective Bargaining
With high levels of unionization and no right-to-work laws, union presence has cost individuals more than $10,000 in income over the last 50 years…
Washington Examiner
Study Estimates Unionization Cost Workers in Some States $11,000
Heavy unionization cost the average worker in Michigan about $11,000 over the last 50 years. It cost workers in Nevada about…
News Release
CEI Report Finds Unionization Costs Individuals More Than $10,000 in Some States
New CEI Report Finds Unionization Costs Individuals More Than $10,000 in Some States Big Labor Holding Back Employee Wages and State Economic…
Blog
Obama Claim Spurious; Labor Unions Furious; New Ranking Curious
Coauthored with Alex Bolt. President Barack Obama spuriously claimed, "These so-called right-to-work [RTW] laws, they don't have anything to do with economics," when he futilely…
Blog
Kentucky Teachers Union Demands Pay Raise to Perform Union Business
Contract negotiations between Jefferson County Public Schools and its teachers union have hit an impasse. Union officials want more than the state-mandated 1-percent raise, which…
Blog
House Hearing Highlights Problems in the Fair Labor Standards Act
The Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing yesterday that focused on the troubled regulatory structure of…
Blog
Risky Public Pension Plans Unsafe for Taxpayers, Bad for Business Growth
In new analysis published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, economist Robert Sarvis ranks states based on the severity of their unfunded pension liabilities, and explains…
Blog
Did Former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Violate the Hatch Act?
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, it appears that former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis may have violated the Hatch Act—which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political…
Blog
Labor and Employment Scorecard: Pension Smoothing as a “Pay-For” in Highway and Transportation Funding Act
On July 15, 2014, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) scored U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call Vote #414 on final passage of the Highway and…
Blog
Labor and Employment Scorecard: Pension Smoothing as a “Pay-For” in Highway and Transportation Funding Act
On July 15, 2014, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) scored U.S. House of Representatives Roll Call Vote #414 on final passage of the Highway and…
Study
An Interstate Analysis of Right to Work Laws
There is compelling evidence suggesting a substantial, significant, and positive relationship between economic growth in a state and the presence of a right to work laws. This paper…
News Release
State Right-to-Work Laws Show Real Payoffs for Wages and Economic Growth, Study Finds
WASHINGTON, July 16 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released the second installment in CEI’s three-part series, The High Cost of Big Labor, that…
Huffington Post
Women Victorious In U.S. Supreme Court’s Harris V. Quinn
This post was coauthored with Julie Gunlock, Senior Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum. Women just scored a significant victory in the U.S. Supreme Court. In…
The National Review
How the High Costs of Public-Sector Pensions Affect States’ Economic Growth
Today my colleagues and I on the labor team at the Competitive Enterprise Institute released the first installment in CEI’s new three-part series ”The High…
The Washington Free Beacon
UAW Continues Unionization Efforts at Volkswagen Plant in Tennessee
Labor experts told the Washington Free Beacon that the union is unlikely to face any consequences for breaking the agreement. It is up to the…
Pensions and Investments
Public Policy Group Calls For Risk-Free Public Pension Discount Rate
State governments could provide a clearer picture of public pension debt as it relates to state budgets by using a low-risk discount rate, said a…
Blog
CEI Ranks States’ Pension Debt and Analyzes the Consequences
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released the first installment of CEI’s new three-part series, The High Cost of Big Labor, which looks at the economic…
Blog
CEI Ranks States’ Pension Debt and Analyzes the Consequences
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released the first installment of CEI’s new three-part series, The High Cost of Big Labor, which looks at the economic…
Study
Understanding Public Pension Debt
Today, many states face budget crunches due to massive pension debts that have accumulated over the past two decades, often in the billions of dollars. State…
News Release
State Pension Shortfalls Ranked in New Report
WASHINGTON, July 9 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released the first installment in CEI’s new three-part series, The High Cost of Big Labor, that…
Legal Brief
Amicus Brief on Unionization of Student Athletes
Full Brief Available Here "Big Labor spends more than $600 million per year on politics and lobbying. Unions are big business, and…
Blog
Amicus Brief to NLRB regarding Unionization of Collegiate Athletes
For the National Labor Relations Board’s full consideration of unionizing student athletes, I submitted an amicus brief opposing the regional director’s decision and direction of…
Blog
The Left’s Labor Blind Spots
As you may have heard, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito handed public sector unions a minor defeat this Monday.
Blog
End Taxpayer Funded Union Jobs
Phoenix ends annual multi-million dollar taxpayer subsidy to government unions.
Blog
Senator Vitter Follows Proud Tradition of Fighting Against Union Violence
On June 26, 2014, Senator Vitter introduced a bill S. 2535 to amend the federal extortion statute named the Hobbs Act. Senator Vitter is to…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn Gives Home Care Workers Renewed Opportunity to Get Back Compulsory Dues
When you can’t win, change the players. That was essentially the strategy pursued by government employee unions in recent years. This week, it came to…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn: A Human Interest Angle
The Harris v. Quinn decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court is a major human interest story.
Blog
Is Harris v. Quinn Decision Preview of Abood Challenge?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Harris v. Quinn puts a brake on an ongoing effort by organize labor to expand the definition of “public employee”…
Blog
Harris v. Quinn: A Human Interest Angle
The Harris v. Quinn decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court is a major human interest story. Congratulations to Pam Harris and her son, Josh, and family…
CNN
Supreme Court narrowly limits reach of labor unions
The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, however, celebrated the ruling as a major victory. "This decision delivers a major blow to the coercive powers…
News Release
Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment
Contact: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258 CEI Experts Say Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment Comments on…
News Release
Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment
CEI Experts Say Supreme Court Labor Decision a Blow to Unions, Win for First Amendment Comments on Today's Ruling in Harris v. Quinn…
Blog
What’s at Stake in Monday’s SCOTUS Decision on Harris v. Quinn
This Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to decide Harris v. Quinn, as one of the court’s last two decisions to be handed…
Blog
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Obama NLRB Recess Appointments Unconstitutional
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court made its ruling in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning. In a 9-0 vote, all justices ruled that President…
Blog
SEIU’s Illegal Plan to Unionize Small Businesses Imposes Heavy Costs
The SEIU has a nefarious new plan to unionize small businesses: classify franchisees as big businesses.
Blog
For Working Families, Joining a Union Can Be a Short-Term Fix that Causes Long-Term Harm
In a meeting strangely reminiscent of the Legion of Doom, the Obama White House, the ultra-Progressive Department of Labor, and the liberal Center for American…
Blog
Paycheck Protection in Pennsylvania Passes First Test
Paycheck Protection in Pennsylvania is finally on the move. On June 23, the bill, which would end the use of government resources to collect political…
Blog
Modern Day Organized Labor Desperately Needs Reform
When the average American thinks of a labor union, they might envision hard working, blue-collar workers who are pushing for reasonable wages, safe working conditions,…
The Hill's Congress Blog
Republicans sell out free-market principles for union favors
Co-authored with CEI Research Associate Matthew La Corte. The Norwegians are coming!” That’s hardly a call to send Americans scurrying to the barricades. But if…
Blog
Union Leaders Ignore Labor History, Double Down on Partisan Politics
Samuel Gompers was the first president of the American Federation of Labor and thus one of the most important labor leaders in American history. On…
Blog
Big Labor Wants to Teach Us a Lesson
Progressives and those on the extreme left probably don’t worry about unions pushing labor history courses in their kids’ schools. But the rest of us…
Blog
Partisanship Is Ruining the NLRB
Previously in a post on The Hill's Congress Blog, I noted that Congress intended the members of the National Labor Relations Board to be "impartial"…
Blog
Liberal Defense of Unions Fails
David Macaray might just be the perfect example of a leftist who doesn’t understand economics.
Blog
60 House Republicans Vote in Favor of Union Subsidy
In light of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Internal Revenue Service scandals, many Republican congressmen have come out against the practice known as union…
Blog
WorkplaceChoice Video Interview Series Premiere: Cyndi Cunningham and Forced Unionization of Care Providers
Hey folks, as part of a Workplacechoice.org's video project we're putting together a series of interviews with experts in the labor policy field and those…
Blog
Survey of Federal Employees: Union Official Time Wastes Taxpayer Funds
As often stated on this blog, union official time is a wasteful, massive subsidy to federal-employee unions. And somewhat surprisingly, according to FedSmith.com survey many…
Blog
Judge Rejects United Farm Workers Contract that Prohibited Decertification Elections
A major problem with current labor law is inherited unions. Research done by the Center for Union Facts has found that less than 10 percent…
Blog
Progressive Department of Labor Joins Fight against Home Care Workers
As I have said before, President Obama’s Department of Labor is a prime example of activist bureaucracy. The department’s latest escapade has been to support…
Newsmax
CEI’s John Berlau: US Needs ‘Rational’ Immigration Program
Newsmax insider John Berlau, Newsmax insider and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Newsmax on Monday he feels the wave of undocumented children…
