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
What The New York Times’ Ron Nixon Doesn’t Understand About Northeast Corridor Travel
In today's New York Times, reporter Ron Nixon has a remarkably misleading article on travel in the Northeast corridor (NEC). Three major distortions stick out:…
Blog
Equal Pay Should Be For Equal Work, Not Unequal Work
Yesterday, I criticized the assumption that people should receive equal pay for unequal work, such as requiring the average woman to be paid exactly…
Daily Caller
Left Banks With SEIU
Some prominent Democratic and progressive groups — including the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Governors Association, and America Votes — are shifting accounts, or at least…
Capital Research
Hospital Unionization Harms the Sick
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Nursing is a valued career in a civilized society. It combines helping people with the economic demand for…
Blog
When Wage Gaps Are Fair
When I and my wife first got married, she worked shorter hours than I did, and used her additional time outside the workplace for activities…
Blog
Union contracts driving pension crisis
The Washington Examiner Maryland’s $37 billion public pension system earned a pitiful 0.36 percent return on its investments last fiscal year. How embarrassing is…
Capital Research
Union contracts driving pension crisis
Maryland’s $37 billion public pension system earned a pitiful 0.36 percent return on its investments last fiscal year. How embarrassing is that? Even the fiscal…
Blog
Yes, Obama Did Gut Welfare Reform
Earlier, I wrote about how the Obama administration gutted welfare reform. Now, the New York Times is claiming that the Obama administration did…
Blog
CEI Podcast For August 9, 2012: Getting TSA To Follow The Law
When the TSA installed full-body scanners in airports across the country, they did so illegally. Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner explains how a…
Blog
Teachers Unions Defend Institutional Incompetence
Openmarket.org No good deed goes unpunished. Take Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s brave decision to lay off 3,600 employees — including teachers and principals — of…
Blog
Teachers Unions Defend Institutional Incompetence
No good deed goes unpunished. Take Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s brave decision to lay off 3,600 employees -- including teachers and principals -- of 24 of New…
Blog
Unions Claim Moral High Ground, Kick Off Sleazy Smear Campaign
Openmarket.org UNITE-HERE, the nation’s largest hospitality union, has assembled a new coalition of pro-union organizations to target Hyatt hotels with the goal of organizing…
Blog
Unions Claim Moral High Ground, Kick Off Sleazy Smear Campaign
UNITE-HERE, the nation’s largest hospitality union, has assembled a new coalition of pro-union organizations to target Hyatt hotels with the goal of organizing the chain’s…
Blog
Update On TSA’s Lawlessness Over Body Scanners
As I noted previously, the Transportation Security Administration has failed to comply with a court order demanding that they initiate a notice-and-comment rulemaking regarding…
Blog
Obama’s jobs council a total flop
The Washington Times When President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness last gathered in January, he boasted, “This has not been a show council. This…
Blog
Maryland’s Public Pension Debacle Is Likely to Repeat Itself
The Maryland public employee pension system announced this week that it had achieved a dismal return rate on its investments of 0.36 percent — a…
Blog
Postal Service Set To Default On Multi-Billion Dollar Retiree Payment
Openmarket.org Today, the United States Postal Service (USPS) takes one step closer toward a taxpayer bailout. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of…
Blog
Postal Service Set To Default On Multi-Billion Dollar Retiree Payment
Today, the United States Postal Service (USPS) takes one step closer toward a taxpayer bailout. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the current…
Blog
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick One Signature Away From Health Care Mistake
Massachusetts is the latest in a string of states to transform private home health care providers into government employees. The disingenuous legislation will raise the…
Capital Research
President Obama’s Deportation Deferral Order Is Legal
“We will see each other down the line in litigation.” That threat was leveled by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at Department of Homeland Security (DHS)…
Blog
Alternative Teacher Certification: Opening the Education Market
Almost everyone can remember that one teacher who changed their life; the teacher who stimulated education and personal development of their students by virtue of…
Blog
Bloomberg Calls for Anarchy
Openmarket.org Here we go. Another mass shooting, another round of mass stupidity from progressive politicians and pundits. Latest example: In the wake of the…
Capital Research
Answers to Your Questions on Skilled Immigration
From The New York Times‘ Economix blog: Q. Do you agree with David Bier from the Competitive Enterprise Institute that “highly skilled foreign…
Blog
Pension Fund Activism Threatens Workers’ Retirement Security — And Taxpayers
While the underfunding of union pensions cannot be ascribed to any one cause, there is one that is troubling because it is so avoidable: pension…
Blog
To Fix The PBGC, Free Its Premiums
Setting the heavily underfunded Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on a sound financial footing has got to be one of the toughest jobs anywhere. The…
Blog
The Coming Public Pension Meltdown
While the impact of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) new public pension reporting requirements won’t be known for some time, some indications of its…
Capital Research
High-Skilled Immigration Restrictions Are Economically Senseless
Employer discrimination based on national origin has been illegal in the United States since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, yet American immigration…
Blog
San Diego Mayor Questioned Over Pension Improvement Initiative
Before current San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders assumed office, the city faced a massive fiscal crisis. The previous mayor, Dick Murphy, had just resigned in…
Blog
CEI Podcast For July 19, 2012: Congress Takes On High-Skilled Immigration Reform
Congress will soon vote on a package of reforms for holders of the H-1B visa for high-skilled immigrants. Policy Analyst David Bier unpacks the proposed…
Blog
CEI Files Amicus Brief In Support Of EPIC’s Petition To Force A TSA Rulemaking On Strip-Search Machines
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) filed a brief of amici curiae in support of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's (EPIC) petition for writ…
Blog
Robert De Niro Admits Progressivism Kills Economies
Question: What do you get when a left-leaning state enlists a progressive celebrity to brag about how un-leftist the state is? Answer: The hilarious…
Blog
Yes, President Obama, Howard Johnson “Built” Your Favorite Motels, And Private Equity Saved Them
Over the weekend, President Obama sent a message to all American entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs. The message was, "Nothing special about you!" At a campaign…
Blog
Obama Administration Urged Self-Reliant Hispanics To Go On Food Stamps
The government encouraged self-sufficient Hispanics to apply for food stamps, in a Spanish-language radio campaign that continued until English speakers finally became aware…
Blog
Labor Update: Spreading The Wealth Around
Under a law signed by former President George W. Bush, all unions must publicly disclose their assets and expenses. Such disclosures reveal the political contributions…
Blog
SEIU Fails To Disclose Donations, Dues Skimming Continues
Unions were originally created to protect workers and fight for their rights. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), however, has lost sight of this principle.
Capital Research
Why Everyone Should Fear E-Verify
“The only people who have to be afraid of the E-Verify system are illegal aliens and the employers who hire them.” That was Pennsylvania House…
Blog
$14 Billion More in Improper Government Payments
As CNN notes, federal and state governments overpaid unemployment benefits by $14 billion in 2011 — or approximately 11 percent of all benefits paid.
Blog
Sign A Petition Requiring The Transportation Security Administration To Follow The Law!
Over at the White House’s “We the People” site, a petition rapidly gathering signatures that demands that the Transportation Security Administration abide by a…
Capital Research
When Corporate Welfare is Illegal — the ‘Gift Clause’
From Tim Carney’s column in The Washington Examiner: When the Rhode Island government gave a $75 million loan guarantee to Curt Schilling’s software…
Blog
Unions: Political by Nature
Two items in The Wall Street Journal today highlight a feature of organized labor that distinguish it from other special interests: Unions, as they have existed in…
Blog
TSA Roundup
Everyone's favorite sexy-searchers are back in the news, but not for the right reasons.
Blog
Regulation Of The Day 224: Competing With Taxis
A cool startup company called Uber operates in about half a dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada, and is growing fast. Think of…
Blog
Wrongfully Detained Citizen Challenges Immigrant Detention Regime
“What's needed is immigration reform that finally lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and as a nation of immigrants,” President Obama…
Blog
Quotas Limiting Male Science Enrollment: The New Liberal War on Science
Quotas limiting the number of male students in science may be imposed by the Education Department in 2013. The White House has promised…
Blog
More Evidence Of A Higher Education Bubble: Even Scientists Can’t Find Jobs In Their Field
Even “very good chemists with PhDs from Stanford can’t find jobs” in their field, and end up working in menial positions, like "low-wage office…
Capital Research
Obama’s Secret Anti-Immigration Campaign
President Obama’s recent decision to defer deportations for certain children of undocumented immigrants and his administration’s lawsuit against Arizona’s tough immigration law could leave the…
Washington Post
Letter to the Editor: Why Politicians Answer to Unions
George F. Will’s discussion of grossly excessive public employee compensation [“Rahm and the teachers,” op-ed, July 5] rightly noted that unions exist to…
Blog
Scott Walker, Union Slayer
Capital Research Center On January 3, 2011, Scott Walker was sworn in as Wisconsin’s new governor. The state’s finances were a mess; the economy stalled.
Blog
Italy Kicks the Can on Labor Reform
Italy continues to put off addressing its most fundamental economic problem: impossibly rigid labor regulation. In this letter to The Wall Street Journal, I explain why…
Blog
Politicians’ Incentives to Give in to Government Union Demands
In his column today, George Will identifies a key problem in addressing overly generous government employee compensation: incentives. While he rightly places the blame…
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