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
Official Time: Taxpayers paying for union work is officially a scam
Capital Research Center Summary: Few Americans are aware that, through their tax dollars, they finance labor unions through a practice known as “official time” or…
Citation
Bill would halt taxpayer-funded union activism
Matt Patterson, a labor policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in Washington D.C., told Watchdog.org that the union racket attached to “official time”…
Blog
The New National Identification System Is Coming
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card -- or an enhanced Social Security…
Blog
CEI Podcast For January 31, 2013: The Recess Appointments That Weren’t
Federal judges recently struck down four recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming the Senate was in pro forma session when President Obama…
Blog
“Right-To-Work” Train Rolls On: Next Stop, Pennsylvania?
The earthquake that was Michigan's right-to-work law has produced a number of interesting aftershocks, not least of which is the right-to-work rumbling in Pennsylvania where…
Blog
“Right-To-Work” Train Rolls On: Next Stop, Pennsylvania?
Openmarket.org The earthquake that was Michigan’s right-to-work law has produced a number of interesting aftershocks, not least of which is the right-to-work rumbling in Pennsylvania…
Blog
Unions Bad For Unions?
Openmarket.org Hard to believe, but even under the most union-friendly president since FDR, organized labor in America continues to shrink in numbers, popularity and…
Blog
LaHood Out At DOT, But Is There Hope For A Qualified Transportation Secretary?
After months of confusing double-talk on whether or not he would stay on in a second Obama term, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced he…
Blog
Unions Bad For Unions?
Hard to believe, but even under the most union-friendly president since FDR, organized labor in America continues to shrink in numbers, popularity and influence.
Blog
New Study Links Anti-Immigration Groups To Pro–Population Control Environmentalists
America's immigration debate is heating up, and conservatives anxious about liberal solutions to the issue are looking for answers of their own. Unfortunately, the major…
Blog
6 Ways To Improve The Senate’s Immigration Proposal
“We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited.” That’s from a…
Blog
‘Right-To-Work’ All Right In Indiana
Controversial anti-union laws continue to thrust the typically camera-shy Midwest into the national spotlight. On January 17, a federal judge shot down a union-driven lawsuit…
Blog
Obama Administration Thumbs Nose At Court Ruling On Separation Of Powers
Thumbing its nose at the federal courts, which ruled today President Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board last year were not…
Blog
It’s Official: Obama’s NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional
From the Duh! files: A federal appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate…
Blog
It’s Official: Obama’s NLRB Appointments Unconstitutional
Openmarket.org From the Duh! files: A federal appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to…
Blog
CEI Podcast For January 24, 2013: Gov. McDonnell’s Transportation Plan
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell recently released a headline-grabbing plan for the state's transportation funding that would abolish the state's gasoline tax and raise other taxes…
Blog
Adam Smith’s Recommendation To End Illegal Immigration
Restrictions on immigration have created a black market in labor and movement. Currently, the U.S. government issues only 10,000 green cards to workers who lack higher…
Blog
Walker, Wisconsin Ranger (Strikes Again)
Openmarket.org It’s almost too beautiful to believe. In this era of ever-expanding government power, of rising and risible rapacity in the federal Leviathan, can…
Blog
Walker, Wisconsin Ranger (Strikes Again)
It’s almost too beautiful to believe. In this era of ever-expanding government power, of rising and risible rapacity in the federal Leviathan, can it really…
Blog
New Jersey State Senate Pushes Union Giveaway in Project Labor Agreement Bill
The extent and huge costs of the damage from Hurricane Sandy to New Jersey should make rebuilding the worst affected areas…
The Hill
Right seeks to further weaken NLRB
Last week, The Hill’s Congress blog published two opinion pieces, by Fred Wszolek of the anti-union Workforce Fairness Institute and Trey Kovaks of the libertarian…
The Hill
Coming to America? It’s Going to Cost You
Meanwhile, even unauthorized immigrants from Central America pay between $7,000 and $10,000 in smuggling fees to get across the border, according…
Blog
TSA’s Body Scanner Shuffle Continues, Agency Still Flouts The Law On Body Scanners
A great deal of news coverage today has been given to the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) decision to remove backscatter X-ray strip-search machines from U.S.
Blog
Partisanship perverts the NLRB
The Hill When former SEIU Associate General Counsel Craig Becker left his post at the National Labor Relations Board in December 2011, he quickly…
The Hill
Partisanship Perverts the NLRB
When former SEIU Associate General Counsel Craig Becker left his post at the National Labor Relations Board in December 2011, he quickly segued into a…
Blog
Vive la Liberte! Even France Liberalizing Its Labor Laws
It may not be enough to make Lafayette proud, but it’s good news all the same. The New York Times reports: French labor…
Blog
Vive la Liberte! Even France Liberalizing Its Labor Laws
Openmarket.org It may not be enough to make Lafayette proud, but it’s good news all the same. The New York Times reports: French labor unions and business…
Blog
Worthwhile Pension Reform Proposal in the Old Dominion
When trying to get out of a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging. When the hole is a state pension deficit,…
Blog
Obamacare Imposes New Fees, Cost Increases On The Public
Obamacare was sold to the public based on the fallacy that it would cut healthcare costs, but each month brings additional evidence that it…
Blog
How About Some Intellectual Diversity At The Labor Department?
As the cabinet turns: Hilda Solis announced this week that she will soon be stepping down from her post as secretary of labor. Solis, a…
The Hill
E-Verify: Immigration Reform’s Threat To Legal Workers
Ken Nagel thought it would be no problem to hire his daughter at his Phoenix restaurant. He had not considered that Arizona’s new employment verification…
Blog
Feds Say Hybrid Electric Vehicles Too Quiet, Noisemakers Should Be Mandated
Green paternalists often gush about the great potential for hybrid electric automobiles to reduce negative externalities, or social costs, such as local air pollution and…
Blog
Update On D.C.’s Driverless Car Legalization Legislation
In November, I noted in The Washington Post and here on Open Market that a bill introduced in the D.C. Council contained two dangerously flawed provisions and…
Blog
Chicago Voters Reelect Legally Insane Judge
In November, Chicago voters re-elected a legally insane judge charged with a crime of violence. "The Cook County Democratic Party…
Blog
The Great California Government Union Swindle
Are government employees overpaid? A six-part Bloomberg report answers that question with a resounding "Yes." It also singles out one state as the biggest spender…
Blog
Stuck in Time: Italy’s Politics
Things have a way of repeating themselves. This is especially true in Italy, where politics have been stuck in a time loop for the…
Blog
Panel Discussion: The State Of Labor
Michigan's new right-to-work law and the state of organized labor in both the private and public sectors dominated discussion Thursday at "The State of…
The American Spectator
We Cheer for Michigan
What a difference. This week’s enactment of a right to work law by Michigan lawmakers comes only three years after the 2009 government-directed bankruptcies of…
Hot Air
Forced unionization of in-home care workers back on Minnesota agenda
Open Market’s Trey Kovacs explained this at the time: To unionize a class of workers, Minnesota’s Labor Relations Act calls for a majority of workers…
Forbes
Can Union Backed Crowdfunding Rescue Hostess From Bankruptcy?
By now you’ve heard at least two opposing versions of the Tale of the Tearful Twinkies. In the first, a great American brand was driven…
Blog
Right-To-Work Laws Aren’t Perfect, But They’re Better Than The Likely Alternative
On more than one occasion, I’ve heard some libertarians object to right-to-work laws on the grounds that they undermine freedom of contract by barring employers…
Blog
Sierra Club Transportation Report Unsurprisingly Trashes (Some Bad) Road Projects, Praises Transit And Bike Waste
The Sierra Club's Beyond Oil Campaign recently released a report [PDF] highlighting what the environmentalist group claims to be the 50 best and worst…
Blog
Obama’s Dangerous Italian Labor Rhetoric
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="260"] President Obama spoke in Detroit on Monday[/caption] President Obama condemned yesterday Michigan’s forthcoming transition to a right-to-work state. He claimed,…
Blog
Big Labor’s Choice: Improve And Evolve, or Perish
Over the past year, the Midwest has had a pro-worker epiphany, a movement now reaching its crescendo with the imminent passage of right-to-work legislation in…
Blog
Big Labor’s Choice: Improve And Evolve, or Perish
Openmarket.org Over the past year, the Midwest has had a pro-worker epiphany, a movement now reaching its crescendo with the imminent passage of right-to-work…
Blog
Anti-Immigration Group FAIR: Market Is Like “A Mob Without Reason, Irrational and Immoral”
Last week, Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) denounced CEI’s position on immigration. Mehlman argued new foreign workers would degrade wages…
Blog
Catching The Chimera: Right-To-Work In Michigan
Openmarket.org Labor leaders have seen the writing on the wall for their movement for a while now. But that writing just got bolder and more ominous…
Blog
Catching The Chimera: Right-To-Work In Michigan
Labor leaders have seen the writing on the wall for their movement for a while now. But that writing just got bolder and more ominous for…
Blog
CEI Podcast For December 6, 2012: Rising Public Sector Pay
Senior Fellow Matt Patterson discusses why public sector workers make substantially more money than their private sector counterparts.
Blog
Union Holds U.S. Ports Hostage
Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 (ILWU) agreed to a labor contract with port operators associated with the Los Angeles/Long…
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