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
Unemployment Jumps to 9.8 Percent; Stimulus and New Regulations Wipe Out Jobs
Unemployment has jumped to 9.8 percent. The population has grown recently, but the number of jobs has remained virtually flat. The White House…
Blog
The College Debt Bubble: Is It Ready to Explode?
“Is the College Debt Bubble Ready to Explode?,” asks Laura Rowley at Yahoo! Finance. College tuition has skyrocketed much more than housing did during…
Citation
Best of the Web Today: Daffy Ducks
Citation
The Not So Big Chill
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on the Federal Pay Freeze
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how President Obama’s recent pay freeze will still allow pay…
Blog
Seattle Land Use Liberalization Bill Fails to Address Key Problems
Stephen Smith of Market Urbanism asked me what I thought of proposed legislation in Seattle that would remove some restrictions on land use…
Blog
Federal Pay Freeze Discussion: Pointlessly Partisan
This week the White House announced its brave new plan to fix the economy: Freezing the salaries of federal employees. But wait! This is…
Op-Eds
Federal workers will still receive raises despite pay freeze
Among the many suggestions for deficit reduction in the recently released Fiscal Commission report is a 15 cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. This…
Op-Eds
Federal workers will still receive raises despite pay freeze
Appeared in: Yahoo! News, FoxNews.com President Obama’s proposal of a pay freeze for federal employees is a small step towards curbing government spending.
American Specator
Not Triangulation but Regulation
American Spectator discuss regulations with CEI's Vincent Vernuccio, Myron Ebell, and Wayne Crews. Democrats failed miserably in legislative attempts to eliminate the secret…
American Specator
Union Officials Spend More on Politics than Representation
Blog
An Intrusive, Ineffective, Unionized TSA?
Much has been written about the backlash against the TSA’s intrusive new screening methods. Law professor Jeff Rosen has argued that they violate…
Blog
America’s Wealthiest County Used Bailout Money to Give Teachers a Paid Vacation
The richest county in America, Loudoun County, Virginia, used money from the Obama administration’s $10 billion teacher-bailout program to give teachers a…
Blog
TSA Backlash Directed at Failed Screening Methods, Not Airport Security
Contrary to what mouth-frothing Obama apparatchiki claim, critics of the current TSA screening practices are not hyper-partisan corporate shills. Nor are we irrationally…
Blog
Unions Still Hampering Free Trade
Watching politicians stammer on in attempts to justify short-sighted policy never gets boring. The interview referenced by Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady…
American Specator
TSA Employees to Vote on Unionization
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on TSA Unions
CEI Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses the possibility of a union for the TSA.
Blog
TSA Sexual Harassment: Disappointing, but Not Surprising
Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts…
Blog
TSA Exempts Politicians from Body Scans and Pat-Downs
Don't like dealing with the TSA's body scanners or pat-downs? Consider getting into politics.
Blog
Obama Includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 Jobs “Created” by GM Bailout
This post was coauthored by CEI Research Associate Andrew Kwiatkowski As we write, President Obama and Vice President Biden are doing a victory lap…
Blog
High-Speed Rail in China: On Track for Failure
In recent years, Western media reports have been filled with fawning descriptions of China’s investment in high-speed bullet trains: “China Leads World In High-Speed…
Blog
Unions’ Shifting Lame Duck and NLRB Agenda
With Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives and a substantial number of seats in the Senate, organized labor’s hopes of seeing its legislative…
Blog
Minnesota AFL-CIO Pushes for Wisconsin “High-Speed” Rail
I’m currently in my home state of Minnesota, a place known to non-lefty residents as the People’s Republic of Minnesota, a place where the state’s…
Blog
GM IPO Raises Billions, But Company Faces Hidden Challenges; Bailout Still Not Repaid
General Motors raised more than $20 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) this week, selling millions of shares owned by the federal government,…
American Specator
CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go
American Specator
Immigration law a threat to Texas competitiveness
Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, made headlines recently for prefiling an Arizona-style immigration law called HB 17. An Arizona-style anti-immigration law would be…
American Specator
Union Leader to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Medal of Freedom and GM IPO
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio discusses President Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom…
Blog
GM IPO Date Set for Tomorrow: What’s Good for New GM is Bad for the Rest of America
In his 1953 confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in the incoming Eisenhower administration, former General Motors CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson was asked how…
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Where Union Dues Go
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how unions take money from their members in…
Blog
Pro-Pedestrian Advocates Push Deadly Policies
One thing that never surprises me is how often anti-car zealots fail to consider trade-offs before blindly screaming for their preferred policies. Take, for example,…
Blog
Spitzer, Seoul, and Wall Street
Eliot Spitzer, who occasionally publishes over at Slate, wrote yesterday about President Obama’s “disastrous Asia trip” and decried America’s fall from grace as a world leader.
American Specator
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…
American Specator
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…
American Specator
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…
American Specator
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. …
American Specator
A Union Pension Bailout During the Lame Duck Season in Congress?
American Specator
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…
American Specator
Many Threats Loom in Lame-Duck Session
American Specator
Vincent Vernuccio on Card Check
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how unions plan to create rules that effectively…
American Specator
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
American Specator
Democrats Support Yet Another Bailout
American Specator
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…
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