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
Misnamed ‘Railway Safety Act’ advances in House
The misleadingly named Railway Safety Act pushed by the Trump administration was inserted in the Build America 250 Act today and passed out of the House…
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…
Search Posts
Blog
Labor’s Loss: Secret Ballot Protection Advances In Virginia
This week Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell struck a little heralded — but much needed — blow for privacy rights in the Old Dominion by signing two…
Op-Eds
Beyond Tom Perez: Why do we need a Labor Department?
Well, America survived. Yes, it’s true, the United States was able to withstand two months without a labor secretary. The previous secretary, Hilda Solis, stepped…
Blog
Sorry, Progressives, But The ASCE Infrastructure Grade Boost Wasn’t The Result Of Obama’s “Stimulus”
I am generally very skeptical of the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) "Report Card for America's Infrastructure," as this self-interested group 1) gives…
Blog
Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
Blog
Unions euthanize nursing homes
The Washington Examiner Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their…
Op-Eds
Unions euthanize nursing homes
Once upon a time, a group of health care workers walked off the job, abandoning the aged and infirm under their care. Others —…
Blog
SEC Charges Illinois With Securities Fraud And Lets It Off With A Warning
This week, Illinois became only the second state in U.S. history to by charged with securities fraud by federal regulators (New Jersey was the first,…
Blog
Federal Pay Freeze Was Really A Pay Slowdown
The Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson argues that Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget “ignores” a two-year pay freeze for federal employees. But Jamieson also ignores…
Blog
Will Regulators Fail To Learn From The Past Mistakes Of U.S. Railroad Regulation?
The history of U.S. railroads provides an interesting case study on federal regulation. They were the first sector of the economy to come under heavy…
Blog
CEI Podcast For March 7, 2013: The Three-Sided Immigration Debate
Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier recently wrote for USA Today about a third side in the ongoing immigration debate: population control advocates who oppose immigration…
Blog
Obama’s Immigration Bill Forces Employers To Pay Illegal Immigrants
Nothing in this headline is a typo or an exaggeration. President Obama’s recently-leaked Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2013 would require employers to employ…
Blog
Costco CEO Favors Minimum Wage Hike
An overlooked argument in the minimum wage debate is that a high minimum wage gives big businesses an artificial competitive advantage over their smaller competitors.
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Should Treat People As Individuals, Not Groups
Private discrimination based on national origin has been prohibited in the United States since 1965, yet the United States government continues to discriminate based on…
Op-Eds
The Third Side of the Immigration Debate
Viewed from afar, America’s immigration debate appears to center on two groups: liberals whose primary concern is the welfare of immigrants and conservatives whose primary…
Blog
E-Verify: Opening The Door For More Regulations
President Obama and the Gang of Eight senators want E-Verify -- the electronic employment verification system -- included in any comprehensive immigration reform proposal this…
Blog
Cut spending: Permanently furlough ‘official time’ workers
By Matt Patterson and Trey Kovacs, The Washington Times As politicians of both parties ride through the country Paul Revere-like in their warning…
Blog
Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
Openmarket.org We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an…
Blog
Chicken Little Lives Vicariously Through Federal Union Bosses
We know the story of Chicken Little. The little chick thought the sky was falling because he was hit in the head by an acorn.
Blog
Progressives Should Be Wary Of A Minimum Wage Increase
Over at the American Spectator, I argue that progressives should look elsewhere for ways to help the poor:…
Blog
Wells Fargo Economists: Sequestration Helps The Economy In The Long Run
Yet again, the Obama administration is busy engaging in scare tactics about sequestration, inflating its impact on the government and the country (to the point…
US News
Government Office, Government Pay…Union Duties?
When President Carter signed the Civil Service Reform Act in 1978, he said he did so to "promote the general welfare, contribute to the effective…
PJ Media
Here’s to Austerity: Last Day Until Sequestration
Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute wrote on February 25 that these cuts are good. The Cato Institute describes why most of these cuts…
Washington Times
Cut spending: Permanently furlough ‘official time’ workers
As politicians of both parties ride through the country Paul Revere-like in their warning about the dire consequences of the looming automatic spending cuts coming…
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Violate Americans’ Liberty
Immigration restrictions are more than just violations of the liberties of foreigners. Truly a society that restricts the freedom of certain groups restricts the freedom…
Blog
National ID, By Itself, Violates Liberty
As I have pointed out over the past month and The Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of…
Blog
Europe’s Latest Wake-Up Call: Italian Elections
Europe, which has been enjoying a recent respite from financial chaos, is about to get a rude awakening: Italian elections. Voters will go to the…
Blog
Free Trade Si, Regulatory Harmonization No
Politics ruins everything, and in few areas is that truer than in international trade. Over the last two decades, the term "trade agreement" has become…
Letters
Coalition Letter Opposing E-Verify Mandate
CEI has sent a letter to Congress opposing a mandatory national E-Verify electronic employment verification system. Over 40 organizations signed onto the letter, which suggests…
News Release
Diverse Coalition Opposes E-Verify Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 21, 2013 – This Thursday, an ideologically-diverse coalition of forty-five organizations led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Small Business Association,…
National Center for Policy Analysis
Taxpayers Pay for Employees to Engage in Union Activities
Around the country, labor unions are financed by taxpayers. The practice, known as "official time" at the federal level and "release time" at the state…
Blog
Stirrings of Pension Reform in Montana
Pension obligations’ strains on state budgets have made pension reform a priority for state policy makers across the nation. Over the last couple of…
Blog
CalPERS: Model Of Pension Dysfunction
Few state governments are as in as much fiscal trouble as California's, so it's not surprising that few state pension funds have been as mismanaged…
Letters
Official Time Labor Coalition Letter
Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer dime, under a little-known policy called…
Blog
On Selective Memory And Pretending To Care About Illegal Immigration
In immigration policy circles, there’s one thing no one wants to repeat: 1986. Anti-immigration groups call the now-infamous Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) “the…
News Release
Landmark Bill Would End Taxpayer Handout to Gov’t Unions
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 14, 2013 – Government labor unions have long been able to conduct union business while on the job and on the taxpayer…
Blog
“King” Of Nowhere: UAW Chief Makes Noise, Not War
Poor Bob King. Perhaps no other union leader presides over an organization in such stark decline as the United Auto Workers. At its peak in 1979, the UAW boasted…
Blog
An Unconstitutional Gift To Labor Unions
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New Jersey Senate has only passed one bill associated with rebuilding storm-damaged public infrastructure. Sadly, if passed, the…
Blog
“King” Of Nowhere: UAW Chief Makes Noise, Not War
Openmarket.org Poor Bob King. Perhaps no other union leader presides over an organization in such stark decline as the United Auto Workers (UAW). At its peak in 1979,…
Blog
Obama Renews Call For Paycheck Fairness Act
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama renewed his call for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it…
Blog
Immigration Reform’s Economic Benefits
Comprehensive immigration reform is coming. For those that don’t speak D.C. doublespeak, that means more costly, useless, and privacy-invading border drones, more guards…
Products
E-Verify Problems and Solutions
Blog
Sequester Budget Cuts Would Increase Long-Term Economic Growth
The automatic budget cuts contained in the sequester will increase economic growth in the long-term, if Congress will just let them happen—rather than listening to…
National Post
Frum Wrong About Budget Cuts
David Frum claims modest automatic budget cuts scheduled to go into effect in the U.S.A. in March will somehow harm the economy if they aren’t…
Blog
‘Blunting’ the decline of unions
New York Post Some say the organized-labor movement is going to pot — but at least one union is looking to pot for its…
National Post
Marco Rubio immigration bill sneaks in database expansions
“Using employers as a fourth arm of the government is not the framework that the founders of this country envisioned when they created the Constitution,”…
National Post
‘Blunting’ the decline of unions
Some say the organized-labor movement is going to pot — but at least one union is looking to pot for its salvation. US labor unions…
Blog
CEI In The Wall Street Journal: E-Verify Is A Threat To Liberty
CEI founder Fred Smith co-authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today on E-Verify — the electronic employment verification system that will likely…
Blog
National ID Proponents’ Bad Arguments
America’s new national identification system is coming. President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators want to enact a national identification card that would…
Wall Street Journal
E-Verify’s ‘Hang Everyone’ Approach
This op-ed was coauthored by Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office If you hang everyone, the old saying goes, you…
Blog
House GOP May Want Legal Pathway For All Immigrants, Not Just Those Here Illegally
Everyone knows the major obstacle to immigration reform will be legalization for the 11.1 million people in the United States who have overstayed visas or…
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