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
Labor-supported bill would protect unions, force workers into unions they never voted for
Twenty Republican House members joined their Democratic colleagues in passing the Faster Labor Contracts Act last night. The bill would fast-track union negotiations, allowing arbitration…
Blog
Congress wants to retrain workers for the AI economy. The private sector is already doing it
Last week, Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Lori Trahan (D-MA) released a discussion draft of the Great American AI Act, an AI policy framework…
News Release
Economy added 172,000 jobs in May, better than expected report: CEI analysis
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report for May shows an unexpected increase of 172,000 jobs, indicating an economy that has begun to…
Search Posts
Blog
The Streetcar Delusion: Minneapolis Receives Funding to Bolster Wasteful Rail Transit
Delusional Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood continues to flush taxpayer dollars down the toilet on increasingly idiotic rail programs. The latest example of LaHood’s anti-mobility…
Blog
The Obama Administration’s Misguided War on For-Profit Colleges
In Forbes, economist Richard Vedder of Ohio University documents the blunders behind the Obama administration’s war on for-profit colleges that wiped out $8 billion…
Blog
CEI Podcast — December 21, 2010: What’s Next for Immigration Reform?
CEI Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh goes over the good and the bad of the DREAM Act, which recently stalled in the Senate, and offers his…
Study
Allow Immigrants to Help Fill America’s Need for Workers
Congress should implement more flexible, less restrictive immigration laws, with the ultimate goal of an immigration system that lets law-abiding workers from anywhere fill any…
Study
Allow Workers and Employers to Work without Burdensome Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF One of America’s greatest economic…
Citation
Public Employee Unions Bankrupting States
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses who will confront public employee unions over their unsustainable pensions.
Blog
Rip-Off: College Tuition Bubble and Debt Burdens Grow Worse
Forbes magazine recently blew the whistle on how skyrocketing college tuition is ripping off the public. Thanks to some colleges’ greed, and the federal and state financial…
Blog
High-Speed Rail as the New Political Football?
Over at National Journal‘s Transportation Experts blog, Fawn Johnson asks whether or not high-speed rail has become a new political football in the United…
Blog
Live Blogging: “Fixing The World Economy: Stresses And Solutions”
This is a Live Blog of a Thomson Reuters Event on “Fixing the World Economy.” The speakers are Dominique Strauss-Kahn, International Monetary Fund and Chrystia…
Blog
Useless College Degrees Proliferate; Millions Waste Lives in Academic Bubble
“Do we need more college grads?,” asks John Leo in Minding the Campus. The answer is surely no: a study highlighted in the Chronicle…
Citation
Construction Costs Could Rise in Louisiana if Union Plan Advances
Op-Eds
Democrats Diverging From Unions
Government employee unions have long been one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal and dedicated constituencies. For years, Democratic politicians have supported public employee unions’…
Blog
Unemployment Benefits Keep People from Working
Wintery Knight has an interesting discussion of how unemployment benefits keep people from working, drawing on coverage from The New York Times and academic…
Citation
Wal-Mart Case Bigger Than Company
Blog
More Disincentives to Work, Thanks to the Federal Government and the Stimulus Package
Thanks to food stamps, Medicaid, and housing subsidies, and other welfare benefits, many “poor” people have far more disposable income than self-supporting households earning $40,000…
Blog
Are Government Employee Unions Losing the Democrats?
Government employee unions have long been renowned as one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal and dedicated supporting constituencies. For years, Democratic politicians have supported…
Blog
New Fast Food Restaurants Banned in South Los Angeles
New fast-food restaurants are now banned in South Los Angeles. Say goodbye to many entry-level jobs in that poor urban area. The cockamamie idea behind this ban is…
Blog
Stimulus Impact: Zero, or Less Than Zero?
In The Wall Street Journal, economists John F. Cogan and John B. Taylor argue that the impact of the $800 billion “Obama stimulus” was…
Blog
17 Million Unnecessary College Degrees; Obama Administration Seeks to Increase the Number
In America today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees. Over 18,000 parking lot attendants have college degrees. So do thousands of janitors.
Blog
Supreme Court to Hear Wal-Mart v. Dukes
The Supreme Court voted to hear Wal-Mart v. Dukes, granting Wal-Mart’s petition for certiorari. The Supreme Court will decide whether a class-action rule…
Blog
Deal to Explode Deficits by $900 Billion Will Burden States and Employers With More Unemployment Costs
President Obama and Republican leaders reached a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years — and temporarily reduce social security payroll taxes…
Blog
Why D.C. Metro Escalators Are Always Broken: Incentives Matter
For Washingtonians wondering why Metro is always on the fritz, check out my piece over at The Examiner about how WMATA unions pay employees…
Blog
Seattle Land-Use Regulation Liberalization Redux
Stephen Smith of Market Urbanism responds to my response to his question, asking if I thought Seattle’s proposed land-use liberalization bill was a…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Federal Worker Pay
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the truth about President Obama's recent pay freeze for federal employees. Many workers will still see their pay…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.8 Percent; Stimulus and New Regulations Wipe Out Jobs
Unemployment has jumped to 9.8 percent. The population has grown recently, but the number of jobs has remained virtually flat. The White House…
Blog
The College Debt Bubble: Is It Ready to Explode?
“Is the College Debt Bubble Ready to Explode?,” asks Laura Rowley at Yahoo! Finance. College tuition has skyrocketed much more than housing did during…
Citation
Best of the Web Today: Daffy Ducks
Citation
The Not So Big Chill
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on the Federal Pay Freeze
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how President Obama’s recent pay freeze will still allow pay…
Blog
Seattle Land Use Liberalization Bill Fails to Address Key Problems
Stephen Smith of Market Urbanism asked me what I thought of proposed legislation in Seattle that would remove some restrictions on land use…
Blog
Federal Pay Freeze Discussion: Pointlessly Partisan
This week the White House announced its brave new plan to fix the economy: Freezing the salaries of federal employees. But wait! This is…
Op-Eds
Federal workers will still receive raises despite pay freeze
Among the many suggestions for deficit reduction in the recently released Fiscal Commission report is a 15 cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. This…
Op-Eds
Federal workers will still receive raises despite pay freeze
Appeared in: Yahoo! News, FoxNews.com President Obama’s proposal of a pay freeze for federal employees is a small step towards curbing government spending.
American Specator
Not Triangulation but Regulation
American Spectator discuss regulations with CEI's Vincent Vernuccio, Myron Ebell, and Wayne Crews. Democrats failed miserably in legislative attempts to eliminate the secret…
American Specator
Union Officials Spend More on Politics than Representation
Blog
An Intrusive, Ineffective, Unionized TSA?
Much has been written about the backlash against the TSA’s intrusive new screening methods. Law professor Jeff Rosen has argued that they violate…
Blog
America’s Wealthiest County Used Bailout Money to Give Teachers a Paid Vacation
The richest county in America, Loudoun County, Virginia, used money from the Obama administration’s $10 billion teacher-bailout program to give teachers a…
Blog
TSA Backlash Directed at Failed Screening Methods, Not Airport Security
Contrary to what mouth-frothing Obama apparatchiki claim, critics of the current TSA screening practices are not hyper-partisan corporate shills. Nor are we irrationally…
Blog
Unions Still Hampering Free Trade
Watching politicians stammer on in attempts to justify short-sighted policy never gets boring. The interview referenced by Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady…
American Specator
TSA Employees to Vote on Unionization
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on TSA Unions
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the possibility of a union for the TSA.
Blog
TSA Sexual Harassment: Disappointing, but Not Surprising
Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts…
Blog
TSA Exempts Politicians from Body Scans and Pat-Downs
Don't like dealing with the TSA's body scanners or pat-downs? Consider getting into politics.
Blog
Obama Includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 Jobs “Created” by GM Bailout
This post was coauthored by CEI Research Associate Andrew Kwiatkowski As we write, President Obama and Vice President Biden are doing a victory lap…
Blog
High-Speed Rail in China: On Track for Failure
In recent years, Western media reports have been filled with fawning descriptions of China’s investment in high-speed bullet trains: “China Leads World In High-Speed…
Blog
Unions’ Shifting Lame Duck and NLRB Agenda
With Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives and a substantial number of seats in the Senate, organized labor’s hopes of seeing its legislative…
Blog
Minnesota AFL-CIO Pushes for Wisconsin “High-Speed” Rail
I’m currently in my home state of Minnesota, a place known to non-lefty residents as the People’s Republic of Minnesota, a place where the state’s…
Blog
GM IPO Raises Billions, But Company Faces Hidden Challenges; Bailout Still Not Repaid
General Motors raised more than $20 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) this week, selling millions of shares owned by the federal government,…
American Specator
CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go
American Specator
Immigration law a threat to Texas competitiveness
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, made headlines recently for prefiling an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be…
American Specator
Union Leader to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Medal of Freedom and GM IPO
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses President Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom…
Blog
GM IPO Date Set for Tomorrow: What’s Good for New GM is Bad for the Rest of America
In his 1953 confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in the incoming Eisenhower administration, former General Motors CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson was asked how…
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how unions take money from their members in…
Blog
Pro-Pedestrian Advocates Push Deadly Policies
One thing that never surprises me is how often anti-car zealots fail to consider trade-offs before blindly screaming for their preferred policies. Take, for example,…
Blog
Spitzer, Seoul, and Wall Street
Eliot Spitzer, who occasionally publishes over at Slate, wrote yesterday about President Obama’s “disastrous Asia trip” and decried America’s fall from grace as a world leader.
American Specator
Texas Should Not Copy the Arizona Anti-Immigration Law
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle made headlines recently for introducing an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be disastrous for…
American Specator
Where Do All Those Union Dues Go?
Blog
The TSA Can’t Help Being Annoying
With the holiday travel season approaching fast, public anger at the federal Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) increasingly invasive airport passenger screening procedures — full…
American Specator
Bill Would End Right to Work in All States
Samuel Gompers, the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor, once said, “There may be here and there a worker who for…
American Specator
Debbie Riddle’s Arizona-Style Immigration Law Would be a Disaster for Texas
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle made headlines last week for introducing an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be…
Blog
November 24: National Opt Out Day
OptOutDay.com the website and group is urging air-travelers on November 24 (one of the busiest travel days of the year) to refuse to submit…
Blog
Obama’s Labor Department Again Pushes Forced Unionism
You are at work one day and a couple of police vehicles pull up. They go into the administrative office area and the next thing…
Blog
America: Where “High-Speed Rail” is Not High-Speed Rail
Yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood addressed a crowd of Midwest rail fans, saying, “Twenty-five years from now, because of the president’s vision, we will…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Card Check
Watch the interview on YouTube. …
American Specator
A Union Pension Bailout During the Lame Duck Season in Congress?
American Specator
The Election’s Over, So Let’s Get Back to Business
President Obama recently warned that the current high unemployment could be “a new normal” in the United States. If his administration doesn’t change course…
American Specator
Many Threats Loom in Lame-Duck Session
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Card Check
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how unions plan to create rules that effectively…
American Specator
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
American Specator
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
American Specator
Big Labor May Still Reap Benefits Despite Election Losses
Organized labor’s fears were realized Tuesday when Republicans won a decisive majority in the House, almost eviscerated the Democrat majority in the Senate and picked…
Blog
Will the NLRB Push Big Labor’s Agenda?
Organized labor expended enormous amounts of resources and effort to give Democrats control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008. For this…
Study
The 2010 Union Pension Bailout Bills
Get ready to give some of your hard-earned cash – again – to the cronies of Congress who are pushing for yet another bailout. Two…
Blog
Jobs Saved or Created: Armed Security to Guard Unemployment Offices
Here is a must-read for naysayers ready to indict current regulatory policies’ ability to create or save jobs! With December looms the deadline for folks…
News Release
Big Labor Tries to Retain Influence in Congress
Washington, D.C., November 4, 2010 — America has voted and the power in Congress has shifted. House Democrats who kowtowed to union special interests have…
Blog
Election 2010: Union Losses, Worker Gains
Yesterday’s election results will make it much more difficult for organized labor to advance its agenda in Congress. This is good news for the American…
Blog
A Bizarre Defense of High-Speed Rail
Perhaps “bizarre” is not the appropriate word, as Matthew Yglesias is employed by the Obama administration’s barely unofficial think tank/PR shop Center for American…
American Specator
Contrarian Says U.S. Needs More H-1B Workers
Blog
Touting Government Failures As Successes: Chris Zimmerman and Metro
Arlington County Board member Chris Zimmerman is touting “his experience on the Metro Board of Directors, of which he is the longest-serving member.” This…
American Specator
Contrarian Says U.S. Needs More H-1B Workers
American Specator
Unions are Hijacking our Democracy
American Specator
Think Tank Opposes Caps, Fees, Time Limit on H-1B Visas
Blog
Obamacare to Wipe Out 800,000 Jobs Through Work Disincentives
Obamacare is going to wipe out 800,000 jobs through its disincentives to work. That contrasts sharply with false claims by House Speaker Nancy…
Blog
The Stealthy Public Pension Time Bomb
As state and local government budgets have come under increasing stress, greater public attention has come to focus on government employees’ compensation. This greater scrutiny…
American Specator
Fireman Strikes in Our Future
Blog
D.C. Minimum Wage Contributes to Decade of Heightened Unemployment
In a daring new approach to employment analysis, a report out today from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute advises implementing a higher minimum…
Blog
Washington Subway Terrorist Bomb Plot Leads to Arrest
Federal authorities arrested Farooque Ahmed for plotting to bomb the Washington Metro subway system. Ahmed, who immigrated from Pakistan, “conspired with people he thought…
Blog
Marlo Lewis on Hyundai’s Zero Emission Advertisment
Hyundai’s newest advertisement features their attempts at producing a “green” commercial. One of Hyundai’s slogans is “Prepare to want one,” yet as Marlo Lewis notes…
Blog
Common Sense Fact of the Day: Only 5 Countries Have Pension Systems That Can Survive (Hint: Not the USA)
This issue keeps showing up over the Internet, so it makes it an easy story to address: Most government pension programs are unsustainable. As…
Blog
Obama Pumps More Money into “High-Speed Rail” Boondoggles
The Department of Transportation announced today that another $2.4 billion is being doled out to high-speed rail projects around the country. This is on…
Blog
CBO: Obamacare Discourages Work
Even the Congressional Budget Office, which allowed supporters of Obamacare to hide its costs through gimmicks and dodges, admitted last “Friday that…
Blog
Clarity Regarding What the Left Believes
Recently, I wrote about french protesters shutting down France and destroying Paris. This is all due to the fact that Sarkozy is asking citizens…
Blog
The Nobel Case for Immigration
In today's American Spectator, my colleague Alex Nowrasteh and I make the case for expanding skilled immigration.
American Specator
H-1B Visas: A Case for Open Immigration of Highly Skilled Foreign Workers
American Spectator
The Nobel Case for Immigration
Only 1 in 20 people on earth live in America. But Americans won 4 of 11 Nobel prizes this year. Last year, it was…
Blog
William Lind’s Absurd “Conservative Case” for More Transit [Waste]
Over at enviro-blog Grist, conservative William Lind is interviewed on the subject of transit. Lind is an anomaly of sorts in the center-right transportation camp in…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps Under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid
Unemployment averaged about 5.2 percent under both Clinton and Bush, but rose to an average of 9.43 percent under Obama (the current rate…
Blog
Government Unions Buying More Power
Yesterday The Washington Examiner showed how public sector unions are buying their power though campaign donations. In their excellent editorial “Public employee unions…
American Spectator
Union Campaigns Against Fast Food Industry Should Concern Young Workers and Consumers
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