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
DOL gets flexible on overtime
The Department of Labor (DOL) will formally reverse a Biden-era rule that expanded the number of workers eligible for overtime on Friday. Courts had…
News Release
Economy added 115,000 jobs in April, modest boost amidst economic uncertainty: CEI analysis
The jobs report for April shows 115,000 jobs were added to the economy, a modest boost compared to previous months. While unemployment remains unchanged…
Blog
The party is over for Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Of all the Trump administration cabinet officials who have exited early and unceremoniously, Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer can arguably be…
Search Posts
Blog
Big Labor Pension Strategy: United States of Argentina?
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern made a big splash last week, when he announced his retirement from leading what is arguably America’s…
Blog
Taxpayers Take Another Hit from Obama; Administration Panders Yet Again to Big Labor
Taxpayers will pay billions more due to an executive order signed by President Obama that effectively restricts federal construction contracts to the minority of construction…
Newsletter
Unions, New Taxes and GM Crops
Andy Stern is leaving his post as head of the Service Employees International Union. The Obama Administration may soon propose a Value Added Tax (VAT).
Blog
Stern Jumps off Sinking Pension Ship
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern plans to retire as head of the union that he helped to transform into the most…
Op-Eds
Fix America’s Immigration System by Focusing on Security
America’s immigration bureaucracies are rife with waste and inefficiency. Yet taxpayer dollars are not the only thing they put at risk. The nation’s security…
Spectator
Coal Workers Are Heroes
American Spectator discusses the West Virginia coal mining tragedy with Iain Murray. The coal mining tragedy in West Virginia shows that we should…
Spectator
I Got People Too
Like John, I "got people" too. Here is a summary of points made in response to the question by my Competitive Enteprise Institute colleague,…
Spectator
Dem-Packed NLRB May Rush Through Pro-Union Rulings
Newsletter
State Pensions, Cesar Chavez, and Wine Deliveries
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is trying to boost the state economy by reforming state employee pension plans. President Obama declares March 31th “Cesar Chavez Day”…
Spectator
National ID Card could be the cornerstone of comprehensive immigration reform
Spectator
Realistic Immigration Laws are Needed (Letter to the Editor)
Rep. Lamar Smith’s "Adhere to rule of law on immigration policy" (Nation, March 24) argues that conservative principles demand a respect for the rule…
Blog
Intern Sweatshops?
Jeffrey Miron comments on state officials’ claim that increasing the use of unpaid (or barely paid) interns might run afoul of minimum wage laws.
Blog
Virginia Shows the Way in Taking on the Pensions Crisis
As the federal government continues to expand at an ever-growing pace, the Old Dominion is doing things differently. As The Richmond Times-Dispatch explains,…
Blog
Cesar Chavez Day – Interesting Timing
March 31 was Cesar Chavez Day. Cesar Chavez Day has been celebrated in California for some time. But this year, for the first time, it…
Blog
The Numbers on Public Sector Unions and State Debt
In today’s Washington Examiner, David Freddoso outlines the close correlation between state government debt and public sector unions. As he notes, “the states with…
Blog
The Case Against Subsidized High-Speed Rail
President Obama’s stimulus package set aside $8 billion in subsidies for high-speed rail projects in the United States (known as the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail…
Blog
Coming Soon: The Auto Purchase Mandate
As threatened, the new CAFE standards have arrived, with the EPA muscling in on territory reserved by statute to the Transportation Department. As Marlo Lewis…
Blog
Bailout Watch: Union and Public Employee Pensions
As the strain on state and local government budgets around the country worsens, public employee unions have gone on the defensive, painting themselves as scapegoats…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 131: Airport Vendors
Laws are supposed to be made by legislative branch, not the executive. What we have here is one more case of regulation without representation, out…
Newsletter
Big Labor, Stimulus Money, and the Census
Washingtonian magazine interviews union president Andy Stern. The Mercatus Center publishes a study on how the $800 billion stimulus package was distributed. Daily Kos reports…
Spectator
Scuttle the National ID (Letter to the Editor)
The article "Immigrant rights advocates pressure Obama" (Politics, March 12) detailed this month’s White House immigration meeting but curiously omitted talks about a national…
Blog
Washingtonian mag: Stern is “union boss number one”
The current issue of Washingtonian magazine features a long, fairly in-depth interview with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern, whom author Chris…
Blog
“We’re twisting arms. We’re threatening people.”
So said United Teachers of Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy at a rally, which reason.tv now makes available in a new video on public…
Blog
$800 Billion Stimulus Package Doled Out Based on Politics; Districts with High Unemployment Were Shafted
“How is stimulus money allocated? Unemployment isn’t a factor, but politics is,” found George Mason University researcher Veronique de Rugy in…
Blog
Public Employees’ Compensation Races past Private Sector Workers’
As union membership in government has outpaced that in the private sector, so has compensation. As the Washington Examiner reports: Compensation for…
Blog
CEI files amicus in Aussie bank case threatening national sovereignty
Headquartered in Melbourne, the second largest city of the land down under, National Australia Bank is firmly attached to its home country. The primary trading…
Spectator
Times vs. Times: The Truth on Union Corporate Influence
Once again The New York Times misses the big picture in its coverage of organized labor. The Old Grey Lady reports: [U]nion leaders had amassed an armory…
Spectator
To Thrive, U.S. Needs Skilled Immigrants
With the health care debate on temporary hiatus, the government’s attention will turn to the next topic: immigration reform. Most of the…
Blog
Health Care- Fix middle-class “medicine cabinet tax” in reconciliation
“They won’t be so opposed to it once they see what’s in it.” That’s the rationalization House leaders have given skittish Democrats to get them…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 129: Droves of Animals on Streets
Washington, DC city law states that “No loose herd or flock shall be driven or conducted in the District, except with a permit issued by…
Blog
Health Care Bill Would Vastly Expand IRS Power; CBO Ordered to Base Cost Estimate on False Assumptions
“House health care bill dangerously expands IRS power,” say a tax law professor and GOP leaders. The Washington Examiner says that “16,500 more…
Blog
Governors Criticize Health Care Bill for Increasing Unemployment and State Budget Deficits; Tax Increases and Medicare Cuts in Bill Rise
Governors are now criticizing the health care bill backed by the Obama administration, saying it will cause health care costs and state deficits to…
Newsletter
Jobs, Health Care, and Synthetic Trees
The Senate passes an $18 billion jobs bill. The Associated Press reports that health premiums will go up under health care reform. The Competitive Enterprise…
Blog
Will the Jobs Bill Create Any Jobs?
Over at the American Spectator, I explain why it won't, but a deregulatory stimulus would.
Blog
VIDEO: Alex Nowrasteh on National ID and Immigration Policy
CEI’s Alex Nowrasteh discusses E-Verify proposal on Fox News’ Fair & Balanced. …
Spectator
The ‘Hidden Lies’ in Obama’s Health Care Plan
Even the Associated Press admits that President Obama is not telling the truth about his health care plan and how it would affect health…
Blog
Barron’s on the Dire State of Public Employee Pensions
The current issue of Barron’s highlights the crushing burden that employee pensions are putting on state and local governments around the nation. The situation…
Blog
$3,000,000,000,000 in Tax Increases in President Obama’s Budget
The president’s proposed budget raises taxes by three trillion dollars over the next ten years, notes Washington fiscal analyst…
Spectator
Big Labor’s Big Disappointment
Recently Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the AFL-CIO executive council in Florida. As Ricky Ricardo used to tell Lucy, Labor thinks the Vice President’s…
Newsletter
Pensions, Immigration, and Airport Kisses
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) is trying to prop up failed banks by encouraging public pension funds to invest in them. Sens. Schumer (D-NY)…
Blog
Thursday Immigration Meeting: Will Immigration Reform Be a Boon or Bust?
When Senators Graham (R-SC) and Chucky “I know nothing about business” Schumer (D-NY) come to a compromise on comprehensive immigration reform, the only…
Blog
Obama Administration Rewards Corrupt Mortgage Giants, Punishes Productive Private Banks, Fleeces Taxpayers and Responsible Credit Cardholders
The Obama administration wants to increase taxes on productive banks that are self-supporting, while exempting the mortgage giants and other companies that got massive taxpayer…
Newsletter
National ID, Eminent Domain, and the EPA
Legislators are working on an immigration reform plan that includes a biometric identification card for all American workers. The mayor of Detroit plans to employ…
Spectator
The Corker-Dodd-Alinsky Bill? : Center-Right Coalition Letter Warns about “Proxy-Access”
Capitol Confidential and Jim Hoft have done an excellent job laying out concerns with the potential “compromise” bill that comes out of Sen. Bob…
Blog
National ID Plan Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration But Will Kill Liberty
The Senate is working toward a ghastly compromise on immigration reform that includes a biometric national identification card for all Americans. The stated purpose…
Spectator
5 Reasons Why America Should Steer Clear of a National ID Card
A national ID hurts American workers while pretending to help them.
Blog
The cut-and-paste Splinternet
The way Ben Kunz in a new Business Week artcle puts it, “Each device contains its own widening universe of services and applications, many…
Blog
Obama Nominates Left-Wing Extremist Goodwin Liu to Appeals Court; Liu is Possible Supreme Court Nominee
President Obama has nominated law professor Goodwin Liu, a left-wing extremist, to the nation’s largest federal appeals court, the Ninth Circuit. …
Newsletter
Blood Donation, Green Jobs, and the EPA
Sixteen Democratic senators sign a letter urging the FDA to overturn a 1983 ban on gay man donating blood. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-GA) tries to…
Blog
Green Jobs Fantasy
I have a piece in National Review Online today outlining the fantasy behind Sen. Lindsey Graham’s latest attempt to keep cap-and-trade alive. Here’s the beginning:…
News Release
Dodd-Corker Fed Bill May Contain Left-Wing “Shareholder” Power Grab
Dodd-Corker Fed Bill May Contain Left-Wing "Shareholder" Power Grab 17 Center-Right Groups Object to "Proxy Access" Provision Empowering Unions, Other Progressives Washington, D.C., March 3,…
Newsletter
SEIU, Insurance Rates, and Gun Control
President Obama appoints Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern to the deficit commission. Congressmen grill representatives of Anthem Blue Cross during a congressional hearing…
Spectator
Administration Keeping Cozy with Union Bosses
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to…
Spectator
Proxy Access: The Obama-Dodd-Alinsky Shareholder Jujitsu
What would Saul Alinksy do? In the wake of defeats for the Obama administration last month both with Scott Brown’s stunning Senate…
Spectator
Administration Keeping Cozy with Union Bosses
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations…
Blog
Obama Names SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Commission
President Barack Obama has appointed Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andrew Stern to a new commission tasked with coming up with recommendations to…
Newsletter
Immigration, Bake Sales and Snow Removal
The Wall Street Journal reports that E-Verify, the federal database intended to track undocumented workers, actually fails 54% of the time. The New York City…
Blog
E-Verify is a Spectacular Failure and Should be Abandoned
The Wall Street Journal today reported that the E-Verify system, a Federal database designed to identify undocumented workers and prevent their employment, fails to…
Newsletter
Credit Cards, Organized Labor, and the Stimulus Anniversary
New credit card regulations go into effect this week. The Washington Post has a front-page story on the difficulty of…
Blog
Myths about Labor Myths
Sunday’s Washington Post features a supposed myth-debunking piece about organized labor that is so misleading that it’s hard to know where to begin driving…
Blog
CEI at CPAC this week!
CEI is co-sponsoring the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, which is expecting to draw a crowd of some 9,000 -10,000 people…
Blog
Not-so-Happy Stimulus Anniversary
The Obama administration and its allies are trying their hardest to put a happy face on the first anniversary of the the gargantuan $787-billion stimulus…
Blog
One cheer for Obama on nuclear energy
Obama has done something right concerning nuclear energy; credit where credit’s due. But he also did something very wrong, which we’ll get to. The president…
Blog
Space, the final private frontier
Here’s a case for private space exploration in the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, if we can ever get rid of NASA and the FAA,…
Blog
Pundits wiping “sneer” off Toyota’s face
Noteworthy is a tsk, tsk on page A1 of today’s Washington Post, “‘Toyota Way’ was lost on road to phenomenal worldwide growth.” More noteworthy…
Blog
Will Obama Recess-Appoint Becker?
With the nomination of former SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) most likely dead in the Senate, the…
Blog
Driving the Bus all the Way to the Bank
Investment bankers and lawyers, move aside. If you want a truly high-powered salary, try driving a bus. Last year, the Madison, Wisconsin’s highest paid city…
Blog
The Economics of Charging for Airline Amenities
As of May 1, American Airlines will charge $8 to customers who want to use a blanket and pillow. Why don't they just include the…
Blog
Do Corporations Have Free Speech Rights? The Supreme Court’s Ruling in Citizens United v. FEC
In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court recently struck down restrictions on…
Newsletter
Cybersecurity, Global Warming and Organized Labor
Congress considers a bill to fund new cybersecurity initiatives. In the wake of ClimateGate, climate change alarmists are now having to defend the scholastic integrity…
Blog
Government Unions up, Private Sector Unions down but not out
The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of the crucial shift in union membership that reached a tipping point last week: More union members…
Newsletter
Labor Relations, Alito’s Silent Protest and a New Editor Takes Charge
President Obama nominates union attorney Craig Becker to a seat on the National Labor Relations Board. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito makes headlines for…
Blog
Why Supreme Court Justice May Have Been So Annoyed at the President’s State of the Union Address
At the president’s recent State of the Union address, he misleadingly attacked the Supreme Court for supposedly “…
Blog
The Nation Confirms Craig Becker’s Radicalism
Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) associate general counsel Craig Becker, who has been nominated to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by President Obama,…
Blog
The High Cost of Project Labor Agreements
At Biggovernment.com, Mandy/Liberty Chick provides a comprehensive overview of project labor agreements (PLAs), which impose onerous conditions on contractors who wish to bid on government…
Blog
School Choice: Mankind’s Doom
A new study opposes school choice on the grounds that it would contribute to global warming.
Spectator
The Corporate Library: Servant of Special Interests
Full Document Available in PDF Labor unions, left-leaning foundations and activists declare their support…
Blog
The Money behind an Anti-Tea Party Hatchet Job
My colleague Lee Doren uncovers the money behind an online hatchet job on the tea party protests: I just came across a new website…
Blog
Lou Dobbs Believes Own B.S.
For years Lou Dobbs made a living trying to convince Americans that illegal immigrants and their supporters were waging a war on the…
Blog
“Here’s a way of paying for things that’s not going to cost you anything.”
Public employee unions, as I’ve noted previously, make up a permanent lobby for bigger government. Now they have a major victory. Oregonians who went…
Blog
SEIU and the Shareholder Resolution Weapon
At Biggovernment.com, blogger Mandy/Liberty Chick has a good, concise account of the rise of shareholder resolutions as a favorite tool of organized labor. By…
Blog
SEIU Suffers a Major Loss in California
The powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has taken a major hit from a rival union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which is…
Newsletter
Murkowski vs. EPA, Public Sector Unions and Ozone Rules
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) leads the opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. For the first time in…
Blog
More Union Members now Work for Governments than for Businesses
For the first time in U.S. history, the majority of the country’s union members work for government, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. For…
Blog
Obama’s Glass-Steagall 2.0 could crash financial system
President Obama’s proposal today to bring back…
Blog
Populism, jobs and the economy — where do we go from here?
Scott Brown’s decisive victory in the Massachusetts Senate race has upturned the Democrats’ Progressive agenda. Brown, “the people’s seat” senator, had a resonant message…
News Release
Report Card for the Obama Administration
One year ago today, Barack Obama took the oath of office as President of the United States. Since then, he and his appointees have had…
Blog
Trumka: “Well, I’m not done.”
Showing a stubborn belligerence more commonly seen in the coal mines where his father worked than in the leader of one of the largest…
Blog
New Federal Program Kills Jobs, While Costing Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars
A federal biofuels program enacted in the name of fighting global warming and reducing dependence on foreign oil is instead killing jobs while perhaps…
Blog
Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says Obama Policies Delaying Economic Recovery
In the Wall Street Journal, Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker and others explain how President Obama’s policies are delaying and retarding the inevitable economic…
Blog
Thinking outside the box on security
The Washington Post editorial, “In the wake of Flight 253, the TSA must get more anti-terrorist tools” makes a short-sighted argument for increasing resources for…
Blog
Serial Rapists Roam Free in D.C. as the D.C. Government Shields Ex-Cons from Discrimination
The D.C. government sometimes has more empathy for criminals than for their victims. In December 2007, the D.C. Council voted to…
Blog
Richard Epstein: “Deregulation Now”
In his Forbes.com column, University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein offers a simple proposal for reviving the economy: “Deregulation Now.” His proposals are…
Spectator
Letter to the Editor: TSA Doesn’t Need Any More Obstacles
The Examiner was right to oppose unionizing the Transportation Security Administration, which would harm airline security and reduce its effectiveness. But the TSA is…
Blog
Public Sector Unions’ Heavy Burden on Taxpayers
As the old saying goes, when you start getting flak, you must be over the target. That seems like a good reason for the hysterical…
Spectator
Change We Can Really Believe In
Over the last century, America has lurched down a path toward statism. And Presidents Bush and Obama accelerated the expansion of government power by…
Study
The Ultimate Payoff
Full Document Available in PDF The December issue of Labor Watch looked at the growing influence of the 2.1-million…
Spectator
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes.
Blog
Stimulus Package Forces States to Raise Taxes, Harms Economy
The federal government’s $800 billion stimulus package, which failed to cut unemployment, is now forcing states and local governments to raise taxes. The Wall Street Journal…
Minneapolis Star Tribune
LETTER: The Minimum Wage: It’s a Job Killer and a Job Repressor
A Dec. 30 letter by a former career Labor Department bureaucrat claimed the haves have had it in for the have-nots for decades because the…
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