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
Pardon me boys, is this the Special Interest Express?
The Washington Post published a smart editorial on Monday on why the proposed Railway Safety Act is a bad idea. The legislation is…
News Release
21st Century Worker Act Aims to End Worker Classification Confusion
Today, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the 21st Century Worker Act, a much needed practical step to clear up persistent confusion surrounding worker classification under…
News Release
92,000 jobs were lost in February, turbulent labor market continues: CEI analysis
The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report shows 92,000 jobs were lost in February, indicating a turbulent labor market. Given today’s report, attention will…
Search Posts
Blog
The Plot Thickens: Mystery Trip to Germany for Chattanooga City Officials
Earlier this month, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger skipped the Mayor’s Industry Appreciation Breakfast in order to meet with…
Op-Eds
UAW ate Detroit: Chattanooga could be its next meal
Co-written by Research Associate Julia Tavlas. Will Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant expand and hire more workers? That’s what Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and City Mayor…
News Release
CEI’s Labor Project Launches Educational Campaign in Chattanooga About United Auto Workers Union
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2013 — CEI Senior Fellow and Labor Project Director Matt Patterson has begun a summer-long campaign to educate business leaders,…
Blog
DOMA Decision: Win for the Rights of U.S. Citizens to Freely Associate with Foreigners
“We received a cold, brief letter from the Immigration Service notifying us that our petition had been denied. Why? Because we’re both men.” That was…
Citation
Bill to Expand U.S. Database to Verify Hires
“I don’t think people really understand that this creates a regulation not just for every employer, or for every immigrant, but also for every citizen…
News Release
Senate Immigration Bill Passage: Meaningful Victory for Free Market Reform
Washington, D.C., June 27, 2013 – Today, the Senate passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) by a substantial margin.
Blog
DOL Regulating An Entreprenuer Out of Business
Not much of a surprise, but the Department of Labor is inappropriately enforcing arcane regulations that threaten an entrepreneur. In a recent USA Today op-ed,…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 26, 2013: TSA Full-Body Scanner Transparency
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses the TSA's lack of transparency and the scanners' ineffectiveness in deterring terrorism.
Blog
Border Security Doesn’t Require “Invading” the Border
When President Bush left office in January 2009, there were about 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. If the Senate immigration bill (S. 744) passes, this…
News Release
Border Security Amendment Wastes Money, Adds Taxes, Fails to Address the Causes of Illegal Immigration
Washington, D.C., June 26, 2013 — Today, the Senate voted to approve a major security amendment to the Senate immigration bill (S. 744). The…
Blog
No Help Wanted: Unions Shut Out Foreign Students
Union-backed provisions in the Senate immigration bill would punish organizations that coordinate visits for foreign students who spend summers traveling and working in America.
Blog
E-Verify: A Boon for Lawyers, Bad for Employers
I have written extensively about the threats to Americans’ civil liberties from E-Verify, the employment verification system contained within the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform (CIR)…
Blog
A Critique of “300 Million Engines of Growth”: Why More Spending Won’t Cure what Ails U.S. Infrastructure
Earlier this month, the Center for American Progress issued a report in which it set out recommendations for growing the American economy. A significant…
News Release
CEI Experts Welcome Court’s Decision to Rule on NLRB Case
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2013 – Legal and labor policy experts at the Competitive Enterprise Institute said today they are pleased the Supreme Court…
Blog
President Repeats False “Equal Pay” Statistic Claiming Women Earn 77 Percent of What Men Do
President Obama repeated a myth about equal pay and pay discrimination, as the economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth notes at RealClearMarkets: Last week in the…
Blog
E-Verify National ID System Threatens Americans’ Privacy
“I’m not a criminal, so there’s really no reason for me to be in a criminal database.” That was James Shepherd, a Kentucky native…
Blog
NLRB: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
Last Friday another court struck down the NLRBs “poster rule” a requirement on employers to prominently display a notice of employee union rights. The U.S.
Blog
GOP Introduces NLRB Reform Bill
On June 13, Representative Tom Price introduced the Representation Fairness Restoration Act that would rollback significant policy changes created in the National Labor Relations Board…
News Release
Border Security Amendments Won’t Work Without Legal Immigration Fix
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2013 — Yesterday, Sen. John Cornyn proposed a major amendment to the Senate immigration bill (S. 744), which would completely…
Blog
Free Labor Markets: Why Immigrant Riots Aren’t in America’s Future
Sweden’s recent immigrant riots demonstrate America’s large advantage over Europe in assimilating immigrants.
News Release
Senate Immigration Bill Needs Rewrite on Guest Workers, Visa Regs, E-Verify, CEI Analyst Says
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 11, 2013 — Today, the Senate voted to proceed with debate on the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act…
Blog
CEI Sues Social Security Administration for Ignoring FOIA Request
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit in D.C. Circuit Court against the Social Security Administration (SSA) for ignoring a CEI FOIA request that sought…
Blog
Let’s “Officially” End Union Subsidies
This week Senator Rob Portman and Sen. Tom Coburn sent a letter to the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs with a message that…
Legal Brief
CEI v. Social Security Administration – June 6 Complaint
Full Document Available in PDF Plaintiff COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (“CEI”) for its complaint against Defendant SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION (“SSA”), alleges as follows:…
Blog
CEI Podcast for June 6, 2013: Making Passenger Rail Affordable
Fellow in Land-use and Transportation Studies Marc Scribner discusses a new CEI study arguing that regulations make passenger train cars unnecessarily expensive.
Blog
IRS: Double Standard Benchmark
Americans expect that federal agents will enforce the law with integrity, and they expect the ever-prying eyes of an independent media to help ensure that…
Blog
Time for an official end to federal employee union subsidies
Did you know you're paying for union officials to do union business with your tax dollars, a practice known as "official time"?…
News Release
It’s Not Just EPA; CEI Sues Social Security Administration for Ignoring FOIA Request
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 2013 – It’s not just the Environmental Protection Agency that doesn’t seem to be able to respond to a Freedom of…
Blog
France Needs a “Power-Up” When It Comes to Labor Reform
In its annual country report released on Monday, the IMF turned up the heat on France for labor reform. The Washington-based lender called for…
Blog
Epic Union Walkout a Total Failure
Ten years is a long time. For example, ten years ago Facebook did not exist. “Friends” was still in its 9th season. iTunes was only…
Blog
Graph: More Visas, Less Illegal Immigration
The graph below comes from University of Pennsylvania economist Douglas Massey. It depicts the three ways Mexican migrants have come to the United States–guest…
Blog
Union Invasion: UAW Targets Tennessee
One hundred and fifty years ago an invading Union army was halted at Chattanooga by the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg. The…
Blog
Wisconsin Town Criminalizes Parents for Kids’ Bullying and Offensive Speech
Law Professor Eugene Volokh has an interesting post on a Wisconsin town's "bullying" ordinance, which criminalizes speech by minors as "bullying" or "harassment" if…
Blog
Senate Bill: Better for Legal Immigration
Free market immigration advocates recognize that freeing up America’s legal immigration system creates economic benefits for Americans while simultaneously expanding their rights of…
Blog
European Skepticism of Minimum Wage Falls on Deaf Ears in America
Spain’s central bank—operating within the European country with the highest rate of unemployment—just recommended to the government in Madrid a suspension of the minimum…
Blog
Union Buyer Remorse on Obamacare?
Be careful what you wish for. That's the lesson Big Labor is learning now that Obamacare is unfolding in all its mighty messiness. Labor leaders,…
Blog
Who is Bob King?
The United Auto Workers union is desperately trying to organize Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant. The union’s President, Bob King, has made it his personal mission to…
Blog
Senate Bill Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration Without More Work Visas
When the Senate “Gang of 8” released their immigration reform principles earlier this year, they made an important admission: that drastic restrictions on low-skilled…
Blog
IRS Political Harassers Could Theoretically Be Fired, as Required by 1998 Law
Earlier, I wrote about how, thanks to civil-service regulations, it is hard to fire government employees for misconduct, despite often-ignored Constitutional provisions, such…
Blog
Oh, the Irony: Unions vs. The Liberal Agenda
In a new study released by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Senior Fellow Daniel DiSalvo found that the increasing cost of binding union contracts…
Blog
Entrepreneurship Visas in Senate Immigration Bill Are Critical
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Gang of 8 immigration bill. One provision of this bill will be welcome news to potential…
Blog
NLRB Nominees March Through the U.S. Senate
On May 22, 2013 the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved President Barack Obama’s five nominees for the National Labor Relations Board…
Blog
Anti-Business and Anti-Freedom: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In the American Spectator, CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray and Geoffrey McLatchey explain why the Senate should be skeptical of the United Nations Convention…
Blog
Does Austerity Really “Kill”?
Does austerity kill? In a recent New York Times op-ed, David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu claim that fiscal austerity leads to a worsening of health…
Blog
Firing Government Employees Is Too Hard; the Constitution Intended for It to Be Easier
It's hard to get rid of a career bureaucrat, even at the managerial level. "After you've been here for a year, it's easier to kill…
Blog
Five Reasons Immigration Creates Economic Benefits
First, if each new immigrant lowers living standards, new people also lower living standards. But without new people, America’s economy would lack the workers it…
Blog
No Duh: IRS Union Loves Obama
In other news, mice like cheese. "NTEU supported the re-election of President Obama as being in the best interests...of the dedicated men and women of…
Blog
Arizona: Busting Official Time
Use by state and local governments of tax dollars to reward special interests is a longstanding plague on the health of our government finances. But…
Blog
IRS Protest: A Firsthand Report
On May 21, 2013 Tea Party Patriots coordinated protest rallies at over 100 IRS offices throughout the nation. I arrived at the national office in…
Blog
Chicago Teachers Union: We Decide When Your Kids Learn
Yesterday the Chicago Teachers Union wrapped up a three-day protest over the yet to be determined but possible closure of more than 50 public schools.
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