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
DC Journal
This Labor Day, Respect the Right to Join (or Not) a Union
Labor Day was created to celebrate all the Americans who work to support their families. The least the government can do in return is…
News Release
US economy adds 162,000 jobs in August, higher than expected: CEI analysis
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report for August shows the economy added 162,000 jobs, higher than economists predicted. While the news is a…
Blog
The ‘no hire, no fire’ era is starting to crack
Families gathering around the barbeque next Monday to celebrate the national day off from work will probably be grilling more hot dogs and cheap…
Search Posts
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…
Blog
Former California SEIU Boss Convicted Of Embezzlement; What Did SEIU’s National Leadership Know?
While the January 28 conviction for embezzlement of Tyrone Freeman, the former president of the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) largest local in California (and second largest…
Blog
“Color” Them Bad: Restaurant Shakedown Group Suddenly An Expert On Ethics
Openmarket.org There’s a hilarious sketch in the comedy show “Portlandia” that features a painfully liberal couple attempting to order a meal in a restaurant. Unfortunately,…
Blog
Will Courts Make Scofflaw NLRB Follow The Law?
The January 25 decision by the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, which declared that three…
Blog
“Color” Them Bad: Restaurant Shakedown Group Suddenly An Expert On Ethics
There's a hilarious sketch in the comedy show "Portlandia" that features a painfully liberal couple attempting to order a meal in a restaurant. Unfortunately,…
Blog
The Case Against The McDonnell Transportation Plan
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan is on life support after two proposed alternatives died yesterday in the Senate. Only McDonnell’s plan, slightly modified…
Blog
Bureaucrat Busybodies Make Nobody Busy
Last Friday, the unemployment rate crept up to 7.9 percent. Ironically, this news came a day after members of the Council on…
Study
Official Time: Taxpayers paying for union work is officially a scam
Summary: Few Americans are aware that, through their tax dollars, they finance labor unions through a practice known as “official time” or “release time.” The…
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…
Wall Street Journal
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…
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