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
Citation
NLRB Touts Union Election Record
From Michael P. Tremoglie’s article on LegalNewsLine: Vincent Vernuccio is the Labor Policy Counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He found the NLRB’s…
Blog
AFSCME leadership fight will shape public employee union future
Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow Matthew Patterson Featured in The Washington Examiner Unions are salivating at the opportunity to take down their arch-nemesis, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott…
Op-Eds
AFSCME Leadership Fight Will Shape Public Employee Union
Unions are salivating at the opportunity to take down their arch-nemesis, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker. Last year, Walker curtailed the collective bargaining power of Wisconsin’s…
Blog
Bill Clinton’s Economic Nationalism
Over at RealClearPolicy, I recently reviewed Bill Clinton’s latest book, Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy. You can…
Blog
House Should Reject Senate Highway Bill, Move for Another SAFETEA-LU Extension
Just before 1pm today, the Senate passed its surface transportation reauthorization bill, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21, S. 1813). MAP-21…
Blog
Student Loans: America’s Next Debt Bomb
I understated things earlier when I wrote that the student loan bubble “may” explode in taxpayers’ faces, as law professor Glenn Reynolds pointed…
Op-Eds
Immigration Restrictions Incentivize Corruption
The allegations surrounding Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu and his attorney Chris DeRose are what tabloid writers dream of. It’s got it all: a…
Blog
If PBGC Cannot Go On Taking Over Pensions, It Will Stop
Herbert Stein’s law — “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop” — is being proven right once again. This time, what cannot go…
Washington Times
Raising the Tipped Minimum Wage Does More Harm Than Good
Politicians and interest groups playing the gender card to push their agendas is nothing new. But recently, it seems to be getting harder, as they…
Washington Times
Economic Rebound in Doubt as 10 Percent of All US Workers Employed Just ‘Part-Time’
From Gene J. Koprowski’s article in The Daily Caller: “The ‘recovery’ is weak and may sputter,” Hans Bader, a scholar and economics expert…
Blog
Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces
"61 percent of folks with a student loan are not paying," notes Andrew Gillen, Ph.D., of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Many…
Blog
Structural Factors of the Municipal Pension Crisis
Public employee pensions are sinking local governments. Over the last four years, they have even pushed some municipalities into bankruptcy -- from Vallejo, California, to Central…
Blog
Ma Bell Is Long Gone, but Her Pension Costs Remain
AT&T is asking the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents a large segment of its workforce, for benefit concessions, as it tries to rein…
Blog
Senate Should Reject Anti-Tolling Highway Bill Amendment
I previously wrote about Sen. Herb Kohl’s (D-Wisc.) terrible amendment to the Senate’s MAP-21 bill that would allow the Department of Justice and Federal…
Washington Times
Is Your Company Ready to Meet its New Disability Hiring Quota?
Has the economy got you worried about reelection? Looking for clever ways to showcase your bona fides as a promoter of “fairness,” champion of the…
Blog
European Union Pushes Discriminatory Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards
The European Union (EU) could not keep member states like Greece from cheating on EU budget rules, resulting in Greece's fiscal collapse and the current…
Blog
Pension Funds are For-Profit
Openmarket.org California’s Constitution clearly states the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS) singular motive is to make profits. I point this out in “Mixing Pensions…
Blog
Pension Funds are For-Profit
California’s Constitution clearly states the California Public Employees' Retirement System's (CalPERS) singular motive is to make profits. I point this out in “Mixing Pensions with…
Blog
Trey Kovacs: Mixing pensions with politics
Labor Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs Featured in The Orange County Register Who here is better to run a business? In 2011, Apple recorded a net…
Blog
Obama Administration Seeks Quotas Based on Disability, Race, and Perhaps Sexual Orientation
The Obama administration is pushing quotas in the workplace and higher education, seeking to force businesses that have federal contracts to hire at least…
Washington Times
Liberals Need to Choose: Welfare State or Immigration
Overcoming the costs of the welfare state is the biggest challenge faced by proponents of immigration reform. The perception that immigrants use and abuse the…
Washington Times
The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind
From Michelle Malkin’s column: Thanks to a separate Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we already know that…
Washington Times
Mixing Pensions With Politics
Who here is better to run a business? In 2011, Apple recorded a net profit of $6.62 billion and its highest September earnings ever. The…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 1, 2012: A Highway Bill Everyone Can Hate
Land-Use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner explains why almost nobody is happy with how this year's highway bill is turning out.
Blog
UAW: Building taxpayer burdens
By Trey Kovacs and F. Vincent Vernuccio, The Washington Times President Obama and United Auto Workers(UAW) President Bob King are touting the “achievement” of the auto…
Capital Research
The Battle for New England
Full Document Available in PDF New England is generally considered among the most leftleaning regions of the country. This perception is largely…
Capital Research
Letter to the Editor: What Is the Place of Unions Today?
Richard D. Kahlenberg and Moshe Z. Marvit argue that unionization should be legally recognized as a civil right. They are correct that freedom of association…
Capital Research
UAW: Building Taxpayer Burdens
President Obama and United AutPresident Obama and United Auto Workers (UAW) President Bob King are touting the “achievement” of the auto bailouts while slamming Republicans…
Blog
Think of the Children
Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, has alleged that Rahm Emanuel privately told her that “25 percent of the students in this…
Blog
Airline Carbon Taxes: The EU vs. the World
On Tuesday and Wednesday, representatives from 23 nations gathered in Moscow to discuss their response to the European Union’s mandatory airline carbon taxes. CEI’s Fran…
Blog
Workers Deserve the Right to Remain Silent
Openmarket.org The California Legislature is considering a “Public Employee Bill of Rights” that (among other things) would restrict the state’s ability to hire outside contractors…
Blog
Workers Deserve the Right to Remain Silent
The California Legislature is considering a “Public Employee Bill of Rights” that (among other things) would restrict the state’s ability to hire outside contractors and…
Forbes
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Real Crisis
On February 1, American Airlines—which declared bankruptcy last November—announced plans to end defined benefit pensions as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring plan. If approved…
Forbes
An Unintended Consequence
From George Leef’s post on the National Review Online: Thanks to the college-for-everyone mania, we have a shortage of workers capable for doing…
Blog
Severe Shortage of Skilled Factory Workers As Government Encourages Students to Pursue White-Collar Jobs
The government has encouraged people who once would have become skilled and valuable factory workers to instead go to college and work in white-collar jobs, contributing…
Blog
Government-Funded Job Training “Might Not Work”: Washington Post
Even a liberal Washington Post writer admits that taxpayer-subsidized job training “might not work,” despite its popularity with politicians, and President Obama’s desire to spend billions more…
Blog
Is the Obama Administration Trying to Expand Federal Collective Bargaining?
An Obama-created board within the federal Office of Personnel Management's recently approved "an outline of a report due to President Obama in May on personnel issues…
Blog
Connecticut Government Focuses on Non-Union Worker Collective Bargaining “Options”
Yesterday, the next step toward Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy completing his scheme to force unionize personal care attendants took place. CTNewsJunkie.com reported: The four-member…
Blog
I Can Succeed, But You Can’t: The Left’s Message to Waitresses
One of the left’s favorite mantras is that government regulations and special interest groups provide the only ways that workers can get ahead. This notion…
Blog
High Unemployment Masked by Exploding Disability Claims that Lead to Permanently-Higher Government Spending
The official unemployment rate is going down, but that's partly because many long-term unemployed people went onto Social Security Disability, citing ailments such as depression. …
Forbes
Bringing Democracy Back to the Workplace
Imagine a presidential election in which one candidate may campaign for a year and the other is told he is running only one week before…
Blog
California Considers “Public Employee Bill of Rights”
Openmarket.org The California State Assembly is considering sweeping legislation aimed at protecting the “rights” of state employees. According to its sponsor, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento),…
Blog
California Considers “Public Employee Bill of Rights”
The California State Assembly is considering sweeping legislation aimed at protecting the “rights” of state employees. According to its sponsor, Assemblyman Roger Dickinson…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 210: Transgendered Air Travelers
Canada is cracking down on the latest terrorist threat to innocent people everywhere: transgendered people. If their appearance doesn't match their ID's listed gender, they're…
Blog
Regulation, Jobs, and Creating Wealth
Lobbying, politicking, and special favors are part and parcel of the regulatory process. The result is that many regulation-created jobs are not created on the…
Blog
Lame Duck Sen. Herb Kohl Continues Quixotic Battle Against Rail Carriers in Senate Highway Bill
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), who will not be seeking reelection this November, decided that he would make one last-ditch attempt to get his awful piece…
Forbes
Ayn Rand Was an Illegal Immigrant
From Shika Dalmia’s article in Reason: Yes, every nation has the right to control its borders. But both liberal and illiberal immigration policies…
Forbes
Free Cupcakes! GOP Hispanic Super PAC Reaches Out
From Pema Levy’s article in Talking Points Memo: The next morning, four panelists met in the hotel’s main ballroom to discuss immigration. The…
The American Spectator
Busting Union Reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the recent passage of his "compromise" bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency that oversees U.S. air…
The American Spectator
Calls for ‘Self-Deportation’ of Illegal Immigrants Win Applause at Conservative Conference
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