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
Economy adds 139,000 jobs in May, labor market growth slows: CEI analysis
May added 139,000 jobs to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying unchanged at 4.2 percent. Trump’s policies, namely his mission to shrink the…

Blog
Initiative 82 will hopefully get 86’d
The city of Washington, DC has belatedly realized that passing a law whose purpose is to make a product or service more expensive will cause…
The Daily Signal
How Many Biden Appointees ‘Burrowed in’ to the Permanent Bureaucracy?
The Daily Signal cited CEI’s expert on political career placements Sean Higgins, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also highlighted the threat of…
Search Posts
Op-Eds
Texas Should Not Copy the Arizona Anti-Immigration Law
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle made headlines recently for introducing an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be disastrous for…
Citation
Where Do All Those Union Dues Go?
Blog
The TSA Can’t Help Being Annoying
With the holiday travel season approaching fast, public anger at the federal Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) increasingly invasive airport passenger screening procedures — full…
Op-Eds
Bill Would End Right to Work in All States
Samuel Gompers, the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor, once said, “There may be here and there a worker who for…
Op-Eds
Debbie Riddle’s Arizona-Style Immigration Law Would be a Disaster for Texas
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle made headlines last week for introducing an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be…
Blog
November 24: National Opt Out Day
OptOutDay.com the website and group is urging air-travelers on November 24 (one of the busiest travel days of the year) to refuse to submit…
Blog
Obama’s Labor Department Again Pushes Forced Unionism
You are at work one day and a couple of police vehicles pull up. They go into the administrative office area and the next thing…
Blog
America: Where “High-Speed Rail” is Not High-Speed Rail
Yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood addressed a crowd of Midwest rail fans, saying, “Twenty-five years from now, because of the president’s vision, we will…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Card Check
Watch the interview on YouTube. …
Citation
A Union Pension Bailout During the Lame Duck Season in Congress?
Op-Eds
The Election’s Over, So Let’s Get Back to Business
President Obama recently warned that the current high unemployment could be “a new normal” in the United States. If his administration doesn’t change course…
Citation
Many Threats Loom in Lame-Duck Session
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Card Check
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how unions plan to create rules that effectively…
Citation
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
Citation
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
Op-Eds
Big Labor May Still Reap Benefits Despite Election Losses
Organized labor’s fears were realized Tuesday when Republicans won a decisive majority in the House, almost eviscerated the Democrat majority in the Senate and picked…
Blog
Will the NLRB Push Big Labor’s Agenda?
Organized labor expended enormous amounts of resources and effort to give Democrats control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008. For this…
Study
The 2010 Union Pension Bailout Bills
Get ready to give some of your hard-earned cash – again – to the cronies of Congress who are pushing for yet another bailout. Two…
Blog
Jobs Saved or Created: Armed Security to Guard Unemployment Offices
Here is a must-read for naysayers ready to indict current regulatory policies’ ability to create or save jobs! With December looms the deadline for folks…
News Release
Big Labor Tries to Retain Influence in Congress
Washington, D.C., November 4, 2010 — America has voted and the power in Congress has shifted. House Democrats who kowtowed to union special interests have…
Blog
Election 2010: Union Losses, Worker Gains
Yesterday’s election results will make it much more difficult for organized labor to advance its agenda in Congress. This is good news for the American…
Blog
A Bizarre Defense of High-Speed Rail
Perhaps “bizarre” is not the appropriate word, as Matthew Yglesias is employed by the Obama administration’s barely unofficial think tank/PR shop Center for American…
Citation
Contrarian Says U.S. Needs More H-1B Workers
Blog
Touting Government Failures As Successes: Chris Zimmerman and Metro
Arlington County Board member Chris Zimmerman is touting “his experience on the Metro Board of Directors, of which he is the longest-serving member.” This…
Citation
Contrarian Says U.S. Needs More H-1B Workers
Citation
Unions are Hijacking our Democracy
Citation
Think Tank Opposes Caps, Fees, Time Limit on H-1B Visas
Blog
Obamacare to Wipe Out 800,000 Jobs Through Work Disincentives
Obamacare is going to wipe out 800,000 jobs through its disincentives to work. That contrasts sharply with false claims by House Speaker Nancy…
Blog
The Stealthy Public Pension Time Bomb
As state and local government budgets have come under increasing stress, greater public attention has come to focus on government employees’ compensation. This greater scrutiny…
Citation
Fireman Strikes in Our Future
Blog
D.C. Minimum Wage Contributes to Decade of Heightened Unemployment
In a daring new approach to employment analysis, a report out today from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute advises implementing a higher minimum…
Blog
Washington Subway Terrorist Bomb Plot Leads to Arrest
Federal authorities arrested Farooque Ahmed for plotting to bomb the Washington Metro subway system. Ahmed, who immigrated from Pakistan, “conspired with people he thought…
Blog
Marlo Lewis on Hyundai’s Zero Emission Advertisment
Hyundai’s newest advertisement features their attempts at producing a “green” commercial. One of Hyundai’s slogans is “Prepare to want one,” yet as Marlo Lewis notes…
Blog
Common Sense Fact of the Day: Only 5 Countries Have Pension Systems That Can Survive (Hint: Not the USA)
This issue keeps showing up over the Internet, so it makes it an easy story to address: Most government pension programs are unsustainable. As…
Blog
Obama Pumps More Money into “High-Speed Rail” Boondoggles
The Department of Transportation announced today that another $2.4 billion is being doled out to high-speed rail projects around the country. This is on…
Blog
CBO: Obamacare Discourages Work
Even the Congressional Budget Office, which allowed supporters of Obamacare to hide its costs through gimmicks and dodges, admitted last “Friday that…
Blog
Clarity Regarding What the Left Believes
Recently, I wrote about french protesters shutting down France and destroying Paris. This is all due to the fact that Sarkozy is asking citizens…
Blog
The Nobel Case for Immigration
In today's American Spectator, my colleague Alex Nowrasteh and I make the case for expanding skilled immigration.
Citation
H-1B Visas: A Case for Open Immigration of Highly Skilled Foreign Workers
American Spectator
The Nobel Case for Immigration
Only 1 in 20 people on earth live in America. But Americans won 4 of 11 Nobel prizes this year. Last year, it was…
Blog
William Lind’s Absurd “Conservative Case” for More Transit [Waste]
Over at enviro-blog Grist, conservative William Lind is interviewed on the subject of transit. Lind is an anomaly of sorts in the center-right transportation camp in…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps Under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid
Unemployment averaged about 5.2 percent under both Clinton and Bush, but rose to an average of 9.43 percent under Obama (the current rate…
Blog
Government Unions Buying More Power
Yesterday The Washington Examiner showed how public sector unions are buying their power though campaign donations. In their excellent editorial “Public employee unions…
American Spectator
Union Campaigns Against Fast Food Industry Should Concern Young Workers and Consumers
Blog
Union Infringes on Freedom of Speech and Disses Military
While setting up for an Obama rally in California, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 33 fired, Duane Hammet, a stagehand union member for…
Blog
The Chevy Volt: Just Another Hybrid
It turns out GM wasn’t being completely honest when they touted the Chevy Volt as an all electric vehicle. From Edmunds: GM Lied: Chevy…
Blog
Starbucks Slowdown
Proof that inefficiency is not only for government: Starbucks ordered baristas to slow down this month, capping coffee production at 2 drinks at a time.
Blog
Mayo, Mustard, or Communism? Radical Union Tries to Organize Minneapolis Sandwich Shop
This morning voting started at nine Jimmy John’s restaurants in the Minneapolis area. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is attempting…
Blog
General Motors’ Losses Hidden by Deferral of Union Pension Obligations
Any General Motors bonds issued this year will be classified as junk by a key ratings agency. Why? There’s some risk GM will go…
Blog
Ray LaHood’s Smoke and Mirrors
This morning, The Wall Street Journal‘s Washington Wire quoted me “disapproving” of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s TIGER II grant picks. LaHood “countered” critics of…