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
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Visa Fee Hike Will Adversely Impact Indian Companies, Admits US
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Cos: US
Op-Eds
Dems Giving Support to Yet Another Union Bailout
The so-called Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act of 2010, introduced by Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), got a huge boost when Senate Majority Whip Dick…
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Visa Fee Hike Could Impact Indian cos: US
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Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Companies: US
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Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio argues against union pension bailouts.
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Bobby Bailout: Casey to Put Taxpayers on Hook for Teamsters’ Shenanigans
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Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts.
Blog
Regulation of the Day 146: Airplane Child Seats
The NTSB wants to throw away 50 lives to save an estimated 1 or 2 lives.
Op-Eds
Repealing Birthright Citizenship is a Mistake America Cannot Afford to Make
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other congressional Republicans are floating the idea of abolishing birthright citizenship, which makes the children of undocumented immigrants automatic citizens,…
Blog
Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Blog
Why Government Layoffs Tripled in June
It wasn't because of spending cuts.
Op-Eds
Illegal Immigration: Virginia Should not try to be Another Arizona
Virginia has been thrust into the center of the immigration debate recently. Del. Robert Marshall asked Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to issue an opinion about…
Blog
Around the Country with Public Sector Unions
It’s often a sign that a problem is turning into a crisis when the public outcry over it becomes ubiquitous. That seems to be the…
Blog
House Approves Obama’s $26 Billion Public-Employee Bailout By a Vote of 247-161
The House has just approved President Obama’s $26 billion public-employee bailout by a vote of 247 to 161. Billions will now go disproportionately to…
Blog
Oh, the Horror! Budget Cuts Mean Pampered Artists Get Less Government Money to Insult Taxpayers
Thanks to budget cuts under England’s new Conservative coalition government, “London may no longer be ‘a beacon for controversial pieces’ such as last year’s…
Op-Eds
Bailing Out Teachers
Democrats on Capitol Hill are literally taking food out of the mouths of the most needy to pay back their political cronies. Today, the House…
Blog
Obama Justice Department Uses Americans with Disabilities Act to Harm the Disabled, Risk Lives, and Undermine Safety
“Amazon.com . . . tried to sell a talking Kindle reader, but” the Justice Department “said it couldn’t because the button to make the…
Blog
131,000 Jobs Lost in July; Obama Aide Abandons Ship; Economists Criticize Obama; More Bailouts
“Non-farm job losses hit 131,000 in July,” on top of a loss of 97,000 jobs in May and June. Another Obama economic advisor is…
Blog
Obama Pushes More Bailouts; Nobel Laureate Criticizes Obama Policies
Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith criticizes the Obama Administration’s stimulus package and skyrocketing deficit spending, saying that deficit-financed stimulus is “the problem, not the…
Newsletter
The Politics of Booze, Challenging Obamacare and “Paycheck Fairness”
Beer wholesalers have been throwing massive amounts of money at Washington. A federal judge in Virginia allows the state’s lawsuit against Obamacare to proceed. The…
Blog
Paycheck Fairness Act Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work
The Obama administration wants to force employers to pay some people equal amounts for doing unequal work, through a deceptive bill known as the Paycheck…
Citation
Immigration and SB1070: Arizona Republicans’ Tempest in a Tea Party?
Op-Eds
Department of Labor Inspector General Nominee: Too Political, Too Controversial
Fresh from the recess appointment of former SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, President Obama has nominated another controversial figure to…
Blog
In defending Kagan, Media Matters embraces Bush Justice Department
Well, who woulda thunk it?! George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at the liberal Media…
Citation
Why Democrats are Pushing the $165 Billion Union Pension Bailout
Newsletter
The Origins of Environmentalism, a Shady Attorney General and Immigration Lawsuits
The inability of the Democratic majority in Congress to pass a climate change bill causes activists to question the state of the environmental movement. CEI…
Blog
Jim Hood: Another of the Nation’s Worst State Attorneys General
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has a truly awful record, as today’s Wall Street Journal notes, citing his links to trial lawyers who tried…
Op-Eds
Arizona’s Immigration Surprises
Arizona’s new anti-immigration law, which goes into effect on July 29, has been a rallying point for many conservatives. It reinvigorated the lackluster administration of…
News Release
Judge’s Injunction on Arizona Immigration Law Doesn’t Stop Law’s Harmful Impact
Washington, D.C., July 28, 2010 — Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law goes into effect Thursday, despite a partial injunction handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge…
Op-Eds
Bill Would Mandate Equal Pay for Unequal Work (Letter to the Editor)
Diana Furchtgott-Roth was right to criticize a bill that would require some people who do unequal work to be paid equal amounts. The perverse “Paycheck…
Newsletter
Online Privacy, Food Safety and Unemployment Benefits
The Senate Commerce Committee prepares for a hearing on consumer online privacy. Environmental groups sue to compel the Food and Drug Administration to ban the…
Blog
Who is Elizabeth Warren and why does Big Labor Love Her?
The Dodd–Frank Financial Regulation Bill, which President Obama signed today, created yet another Czar to head yet another Executive Agency, the…
Blog
Automakers Face Potentially Massive Race-Discrimination Class-Action Lawsuit Thanks to Obama Administration
“Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout — closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler…
Blog
Richard Blumenthal Rated Second-Worst Attorney General in America
Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal has just been rated the second-worst state attorney general in America by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in its recent…
Blog
President Obama Signs Dodd-Frank Financial “Reform” Bill: 2315 Pages of Special-Interest Payoffs
President Obama today signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill, the “most sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial market regulations since the Great Depression.”…
Newsletter
Elena Kagan’s Nomination, Obama Signs Financial Regulation Bill and Defending the Right to Work
The Senate Judiciary Committee approves the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today President Obama will sign recently-passed financial regulation bill into…
News Release
Extending Unemployment Benefits Will Increase Unemployment, Hurt Economy
Washington, D.C., July 21, 2010—The Senate today approved an extension of federal unemployment benefits to a maximum of 99 weeks. This move is likely to…
Study
Union Pensions in Crisis
Full Document Available in PDF Union pensions are in trouble, and financial watchdogs such as Moody’s…
Citation
Union Hiring Unemployed to Walk Picket Lines
Vincent Vernuccio on Fox Business, Varney and Company http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4285533/unions-hire-unemployed-to-walk-picket-lines/?playlist_id=87060 …
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Vincent Vernuccio on Non-Union Union Pickets
Competitive enterprise institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains potential union pension bailouts. …
Op-Eds
Michigan a Right to Work State?
Oakland County Sherriff Mike Bouchard, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, called for making Michigan a right to work State in a…
Blog
EPA, Not Jones Act, Blocked Dutch Skimmers
It was apparently the EPA, not the Jones Act, that blocked Dutch skimmers from cleaning up the oil spill in Louisiana in late April:…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, Immigration and Climate Legislation
The Senate prepares to vote on a financial regulation bill. A Heritage Foundation report finds that deportation of undocumented immigrants has fallen during the Obama…
Blog
Heritage Foundation Wrong on Obama Immigration Enforcement
The Heritage Foundation’s Matt Meyer wrote here that the Obama administration’s year old worksite audit program is resulting in “far fewer deportations of illegal immigrants.” …
Blog
Readers Contest Factcheck.Org’s “Oil Spill, Foreign Help, and the Jones Act”
FactCheck.org argued that the Jones Act, which ordinarily bans both foreign ships and foreign crews from working in U.S. waters, did not interfere with foreign…
Blog
New “stimulus plan” brewing in Congress
It is actually less of a “stimulus” plan and more of a “get government out of the way and stop inhibiting growth” plan. A bi-partisan…
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