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
Trump follows Biden precedent in sacking NLRB general counsel
President Trump’s decision to fire National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox and general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is controversial and will likely be challenged…
Blog
Trump picks gig economy fan for DOL’s number 2 spot
President-elect Donald Trump has raised more than a few eyebrows in the world of labor policy when he nominated the frankly…
News Release
Economy adds 256,000 jobs in December, uncertainty remains with upcoming tariff policies: CEI analysis
The job numbers released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show 256,000 jobs were added to the economy in the last month of…
Search Posts
National Review
The Real Culprit in Our Supply-Chain Crisis
The supply chain for an Apple iPhone crosses an international border more than 600 times, and if it didn’t, you probably wouldn’t have one —…
Blog
There Is Less to Biden’s Ports Deal than It Appears
President Biden on Wednesday announced that the two main ports on the West Coast will start operating 24 hours a day to help address…
News Release
Jobless Claims Just Fell, but Government Barriers Remain a Problem
The number of new jobless claims fell below 300,000 for the week ended Oct. 9 — the first time since COVID-19 hit. Continuing claims…
News Release
Jobs Added to U.S. Economy in September Show Signs of Hope and Hesitancy: CEI Analysis
The U.S. economy added 194,000 jobs added in September, and unemployment dipped. CEI experts Ryan Young and Sean Higgins say this is encouraging because it…
Blog
Why Don’t U.S. Ports Operate 24/7? Ask the Unions
There has been a massive backlog for months now of cargo ships waiting to drop their goods at West Coast U.S. ports. As I…
Blog
America Needs More Truckers on the Road
Severe backups and bottlenecks in the nation’s ports, particularly on the West Coast, have created severe logistical and supply problems throughout the country. This is…
Blog
Fighting Income Inequality Won’t Help Workers
I just learned of the latest forthcoming study focusing on the issue of income inequality, this one promising to explain how regulations can exacerbate…
Blog
Are Unions Losing Hope for the PRO Act?
In a sign that unions are losing hope that the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act can pass Congress, they are now…
Blog
Unions on Biden’s Vaccine Mandate: That’s Not in Our Contract
President Biden’s vaccination mandate announcement on Friday has drawn a notably cool reaction from unions. While none appear to have come out against it, few…
Blog
Jobless Claims Are Down, but Tensions Remain in COVID Recovery
Jobless claims are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic; 310,000 people filed first-time claims last week, down roughly 95 percent…
The Hill
PRO Act limits worker rights
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act bears the interesting distinction of being supposedly “pro-worker” legislation that mostly rolls back individual workers’ rights. The legislation’s…
Inside Sources
New AFL-CIO Leadership Should Orient to Worker Recruitment Strategies, Not Politics and Laws
The American labor union movement has a unique opportunity to choose a leader to transform unions into dynamic, responsive representation that will attract new members.
Blog
The Cost of Uncertainty in Dealing with the Pandemic
If there is one thing that businesses want more than anything else when it comes to regulations, it is predictability. That’s one case where what’s…
News Release
Disappointing August Job Gains Tied to Covid Restrictions, Politics
Competitive Enterprise Institute experts commented on today’s disappointing news about August job gains, urging policy makers to reject restrictions and politics and look for ways…
Blog
Mexican Workers Deserve Secret Ballot Elections; So Do U.S. Workers.
Today, U.S. labor leaders applauded Mexican workers for getting rid of an allegedly corrupt union at a General Motors (GM) plant in Silao, in…
News Release
Jobless Claims Drop to Pre-Pandemic Level but Congress Spending Binge Threatens Recovery
The federal government today reported a drop in seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims to the lowest level for this average since March 2020. CEI…
National Review
Why Richard Trumka Failed
The legacy of the late Richard Trumka, longtime leader of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, is of a union movement firmly…
News Release
July Jobs Analysis: More Spending, Restrictions from Congress Won’t Help
The U.S. economy added 943,000 jobs in the month of July, with a decline in unemployment to 5.4 percent according to government numbers released…
Blog
Weil Is a Poor Choice to Lead Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division
Lawmakers should reject President Biden’s choice to serve as administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, a major federal law enforcement…
Blog
The Meaningless Symbolism of Raising the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors
The Biden administration is planning to increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour, but there is much less to this than…
Blog
With PRO Act, Congress Readies National Version of California’s AB5 Fiasco
California’s AB5 law, which was meant to prevent worker misclassification, faced a popular backlash when it disrupted the livelihoods of freelancers and gig…
Blog
Does DOL Nominee David Weil Believe in Guilty Until Proven Innocent?
David Weil, a Brandeis University professor and President Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division seems to believes that protecting…
Blog
Biden Is Right to Call for Rolling Back Occupational Licensing and Non-Compete Agreements
President Biden’s executive order today calling for occupational licensing and employment non-compete agreements to be rolled back is a good idea that could benefit…
News Release
CEI Experts React to President Biden’s Wide-Ranging Executive Order on Competition
President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy today, which the White House claims is aimed at enhancing…
Blog
How the Unemployment Rate Rose While the Economy Added Jobs
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) seemingly contradictory report Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate had risen marginally to 5.9 percent, up 1/10th of a…
News Release
Government Can Further Jobs Gain By Continuing to Ease Restriction and Not Spending
The economy added 850,000 jobs in June, according to newly released numbers by the Labor Department. That exceeds the anticipated number of 700,00. And the…
Blog
Missouri Employers Must Jazz Up wages to Avoid St. Louis Blues
Employers are struggling to fill jobs in Missouri and that’s a good thing. It means wages and benefits in the state will rise and workers…
Blog
Justices Affirm that Collective Bargaining Rights Shouldn’t Trump other Rights
The Supreme Court was correct in its 6-3 ruling today in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid that a California regulation granting union organizers access…
News Release
Supreme Court Ruling Curtails California Privilege Wrongly Given to Labor Unions
Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case concerning a California regulation giving special permissions to labor unions vis a vis access to private…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Asking Congress to Oppose Any Increase in the Federal Minimum Wage
Dear Members of Congress, We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Americans nationwide, write in blanket opposition to any increase in the federal minimum wage,…
Blog
The Way to Maximize Worker Freedom: Combine Right to Work and Micro-Unions
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a pro-union bill currently awaiting action in the Senate, includes a lot ideas to coerce individual…
Blog
The PRO Act Would Erode Individual Workers’ Rights
Suppose a piece of legislation was presented as an expansion of rights, when in fact it narrowed those rights. That ought to stir up some…
News Release
Report: Workers to Lose Freedoms, Protections if Union “PRO Act” Passes
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report spells out the ways workers nationwide would lose freedoms and protections if Congress passes the “PRO Act.” “The…
Study
The Protect the Right to Organize Act Empowers Unions at Workers’ Expense
View the Full Document as PDF The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is touted by its supporters as advancing the rights…
Blog
The Paycheck Fairness Act’s Solution to the Gender Pay Gap: Make It Impossible to Defend Against Claims of Discrimination
Congress hit a wall this week on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which narrowly failed 49-50 on a Senate vote on Tuesday to break…
Inside Sources
How To Stimulate the COVID Recovery Without Trillions in New Spending
The COVID recovery is going well, but it could be going better. America’s unemployment rate is already down from double digits to under 6 percent.
Blog
New Job Numbers Show a Positive Trend
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) new jobs report is the latest proof that rolling back the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak remains the…
News Release
Jobs Numbers Show Rolling Back Covid-19 Restrictions Would Restore Resilience in U.S. Economy
The Biden Administration’s Labor Department reported today that the United States added 559,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.8%. CEI Senior…
The Center Square
Feds To Pay Hundreds Per Child To American Families; Critics Warn Of Economic Fallout
The Center Square cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on tax credits: “In and of itself, making the full child tax credit payments…
Blog
Railway Unions Want Minimum Crew Numbers
Cars are learning to drive themselves on U.S. highways. Unmanned aerial drones are fueling the expansion of e-commerce. Railways have been trying to…
Inside Sources
AFL-CIO Endorses Right to Work Protections … for Mexican Workers?
The nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, came out recently in favor of “right to work” protections—but only for workers in Mexican factories. The AFL-CIO…
WORLD
Help wanted but hard to find
WORLD cites research fellow Sean Higgins on the workforce and COVID-19: Analysts point to different factors behind this conundrum. Sean Higgins, a…
Blog
California App Drivers Seem Happy that Proposition 22 Passed
Ever since Proposition 22’s lopsided November victory in California, critics of that ballot initiative have pushed the narrative that voters were confused by it…
Blog
Latest Jobs Report Shows – Again – that Economy Can Heal Itself
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) latest job numbers are being treated as gloomy news because overall unemployment marginally increased to 6.1 percent…
News Release
Some Good News in April 2021 Job Numbers
The unemployment rate didn’t budge much in April, according to just-released data from the Labor Department, but CEI labor policy expert Sean Higgins…
WORLD
PODCAST: Help Desperately Wanted
WORLD’s podcast, “Help Desperately Wanted,” cited Senior Fellow Sean Higgins on unemployment and COVID-19: Sean Higgins is a research fellow at the…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Oppose the PRO Act
Dear Member of Congress, We are writing in opposition to the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act, introduced by Rep. Bobby…
Blog
Biden Administration Says Lets Keep the Rules for Contract Work Vague and Confusing
In a move that surprised no one, the Biden administration announced today it was officially rolling back the Trump administration’s rule under the…
Blog
Is Biden Planning New Payroll Taxes?
President Biden will reportedly use address to Congress tonight to tout his American Families Plan, a major part of which is paid family leave.
Reason
When Joe Biden Talks About Worker Choice, He Means Only 1 Choice
President Joe Biden believes joining a union isn’t merely a right that workers have but something the federal government has an obligation to promote. He…
News Release
President Biden’s Pro-Labor Executive Order Goes Beyond Law’s Intent
President Joe Biden today signed an executive order establishing a new White House task force aimed at promoting labor unions. The White House Task…
The Washington Times
Biden Creates Task Force to Spur Unionization of U.S. Workforce
The Washington Times cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on pro-union steps taken by president Biden: Sean Higgins, a research fellow with the…
Blog
The One Place Progressives Want the Vote Suppressed: Union Elections
Big business has a new weapon to use against organized labor: mailboxes. That is what the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) claims is…
Blog
DOL On Independent Contractor Rule: We Were Wrong but We Cannot Explain Why
The Biden administration put the Department of Labor (DOL) in the awkward position of having to withdraw its new rule regarding when workers…
Blog
Maybe Workers Just Aren’t That into You, Unions
Labor unions are second only to Donald Trump when it comes to crying foul over election outcomes they don’t like. The National Labor Relations Board…
Comment
Competitive Enterprise Institute Letter In Opposition To Withdrawal of Independent Contractor Status Final Rule
View Full Document as PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the…
Forbes
The Growth-By-Deregulation Alternative To Joe Biden’s Cyclopean American Jobs Plan
Sandwiched between Joe Biden’s $1.9 American Rescue Plan and a promised American Families Plan is the American Jobs Plan (…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Supporting Kyle Fortson Renomination to National Mediation Board
Dear Leader McConnell and Ranking Member Burr, We write to urge you to support the renomination of Kyle Fortson to be a member of the…
News Release
U.S. Economy Added 916k Jobs in March 2021, Further Proof Lifting Govt Restrictions Helps Recovery
The U.S. economy experienced gains in March, due to states reopening and vaccines rolling out. Sean Higgins, CEI research fellow, urged governments to continue…
Reason
Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Would Overturn ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws in 27 States
Reason cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the PRO Act: “The PRO Act does strengthen unions, but it does so mainly by…
Blog
Are Janus Violations a RICO Matter?
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers cannot be forced to financially support unions, labor groups…
Blog
The PRO Act’s Extremely Broad “Whistleblower” Provisions
The Senate confirmed former Boston Mayor and ex-union official Marty Walsh as the new Labor Secretary Tuesday by a vote of 93-2.
News Release
Biden’s Pick for Labor Secretary Has Union-First History
The Senate is expected to soon confirm President Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. CEI labor policy expert…
Blog
Yes, Let’s Debate Taking Rights Away from Workers
Legislation doesn’t get much simpler than the National Right To Work Act. Introduced by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson…
Blog
Biden Administration Wants to Decide When Freelancers Are “Legitimate”
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Thursday, March 11 that it was rescinding a rule issued by the previous administration on when workers…
Blog
House Passes Legislation to Limit Individual Worker Rights
The House of Representatives passed legislation late Tuesday to significantly limit individual workers’ rights. That is, granted, not how the Protecting the Right…
Blog
Teacher Union Resistance to School Openings Keeping Moms out of Workforce
The closure of schools and the resistance by teachers’ unions to reopening them is having the spillover effect of forcing more women out of the…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing PRO Act
View Full Document as PDF Dear Members of Congress, We write in strong opposition to the PRO Act and every provision within this bill that…
Blog
Congress Should Read the Fine Print on Sami’s Law
Whether a person is an employee of an app-based ridesharing company like Uber or Lyft under U.S. law has been a major hot button issue.
News Release
U.S. Economy Added 379,000 Jobs in Feb. 2021 – Small Progress, Further Steps Needed
Today the Labor Department released national unemployment figures for the month of February 2021, revealing not much has changed in a month. February’s unemployment rate…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Express Strong Support for the Modern Worker Empowerment Act
Dear Senator Scott and Congresswoman Stefanik: On behalf of the Coalition to Promote Independent Entrepreneurs, a national coalition of organizations, companies, and independent entrepreneurs that…
Blog
Alternate Minimum Wage Proposal Suggests Punishing Business Is the Real Goal
Fans of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour have come up with a workaround for the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling Thursday that that…
The Washington Examiner
The Secret History of the Minimum Wage Movement
As congressional Democrats push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s worth asking where that figure came from. Why $15 (more…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike will Force Cuts Elsewhere
With the Democrat-controlled Congress aiming to imminently pass a plan to increase the federally-mandated minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour nationwide as part…
Blog
Are Democrats All or Nothing for a $15 Minimum Wage?
Can congressional Republicans bid down the Democrats’ and Biden administration’s push for a $15 an hour minimum wage? That’s what Republicans lead by Sens.
Blog
The Regional Differences Argument against a $15 Minimum Wage
The strongest political argument against increasing the federal minimum wage is the regional differences argument. Basically, while a $15 minimum wage might not be a…
Blog
California’s Khanna Says Businesses that Cannot Pay $15 Wages Are Dying Anyway
California Congressman Ro Khanna has a message for businesses that say they cannot afford to pay a $15 minimum wage an hour for their workers:…
The Hill
The Problem With A One-Size-Fits-All Federal Minimum Wage Hike
Minimum wage mandates aren’t free. They force employers to make difficult decisions and tradeoffs. When government forces wages up, non-wage pay goes down: Workers get…
Blog
Biden Administration Presses Forward with Attack on Gig Economy Companies
The Biden administration last week continued its effort to help its union allies by officially withdrawing a Trump-era Labor Department guidance letter to businesses…
Blog
UK Court Ruling on Uber will Mean Fewer, More Expensive Rides, and Fewer Jobs
Today, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled on an important question as to whether certain drivers who work with Uber are entitled to…
Blog
Biden Picks Top Union Attorney to Enforce Labor Rules
The Biden administration announced this week that it was nominating Jennifer Abruzzo to serve as acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board…
Blog
CBO Restates the Obvious: Raising the Minimum Wage Costs Jobs
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday reaffirmed something we already knew but that bears repeating: Higher minimum wages costs jobs. The CBO’s…
Blog
January Jobs Gain Threatened by Prospect of Minimum Wage Hike
The Labor Department’s report Friday that the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in January, down 0.4 points from the previous month, is good news that…
Blog
Biden Administration Begins Bid to Create Nationwide Version of California’s AB5
On the same day that President Joe Biden’s nominee for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, told a Senate committee that he would…
National Review
The Dark Side of the Minimum Wage
President Biden and his fellow Democrats are pushing hard to increase the federal minimum wage to $15, and polls show strong…
Blog
Questions for Marty Walsh
President Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will get his first Senate hearing on Thursday. Walsh is a former union head…
Fortune
One of Biden’s First Acts as President May Have Broken the Law
One of Joe Biden’s first acts as President of the United States, the removal of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel Peter Robb, was…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing $15 Minimum Wage
View Full Document as PDF Dear Member of Congress, On behalf of millions of taxpayers across the country, we urge you to reject…
Blog
Be Skeptical of Studies that Say Minimum Wage Hikes Are Painless
Do economists downplay the negative findings in their research on the minimum wage? That’s the implication of a new working paper on the issue for…
Inside Sources
Biden Attack on Keystone Pipeline Bodes Ill For Jobs, Economy
Among the list of things President Joe Biden has reportedly promised to do immediately upon taking office is reversing President Donald Trump’s…
The Daily Signal
Will Biden’s Policies Lead to Job Losses? Here Are Possible Economic Impacts of 4 of Them
The Daily Signal cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on the impact of a minimum wage increase: However, the economic impact isn’t limited…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike to $15 an Hour Will Hurt Small Businesses, Lead to Lost Jobs
President-elect Joe Biden today announced a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery plan that includes not only $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans but a federal minimum…
Blog
Will the Next Labor Secretary Support Job-Killing Climate Measures?
President-elect Biden has selected most of his nominees to head the federal departments, and he has made clear to them that addressing climate change should…
Blog
Department of Labor Cautions “Gig Economy” Companies against Limiting Workers’ Freedom
The Department of Labor (DOL) said on Wednesday, January 6, that if someone is currently working for one or more of your business rivals, then…
News Release
December Job Losses in Leisure & Hospitality Eclipse Gains in Other Sectors – What Can Policymakers Do?
The Labor Department reported today the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December 2020. Gains in various sectors were eclipsed by 500,000 jobs lost in…
Blog
Biden Labor Nominee Marty Walsh Poised to Make Radical Changes
Joe Biden’s decision to nominate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary will elevate a person to oversee the nation’s workplace who is not…
News Release
Biden’s Labor Dept. Pick Will Likely Seek Union-First Policies
President-elect Joe Biden announced Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his pick for Labor secretary. That signals a union-first approach to labor policy, predicts Sean…
The Washington Examiner
The Davis-Bacon Act May Present Challenges To Biden’s Infrastructure Plans
The Washington Examiner cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the Davis-Bacon Act: One of the reasons for the delay was the Obama…
Blog
Labor Department Independent Contractor Rule out Today
The Department of Labor (DOL) acted to promote entrepreneurialism and protect freelancers on Wednesday by issuing a new rule under the Fair Labor Standards…
National Review
How an Inexplicable New York Court Decision Threatens Uber and Lyft
Imagine a job where you only need to show up for work when you feel like it, and when you do show up, you can refuse…
