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
Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer is not qualified to be Labor Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump is considering Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) for the position of…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Commentary: Automation could be a problem in retail theft
Headed into the holiday season, the retail industry is wrangling with a surge in shoplifting and possible solutions to prevent theft. The upsurge may be an…
Blog
Biden overtime rule overruled
A Texas court last week threw out the Biden’s administration’s attempt to rewrite the rules for overtime. The court said that the Department of Labor…
Search Posts
Blog
Are Janus Violations a RICO Matter?
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that public sector workers cannot be forced to financially support unions, labor groups…
Blog
The PRO Act’s Extremely Broad “Whistleblower” Provisions
The Senate confirmed former Boston Mayor and ex-union official Marty Walsh as the new Labor Secretary Tuesday by a vote of 93-2.
News Release
Biden’s Pick for Labor Secretary Has Union-First History
The Senate is expected to soon confirm President Biden’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. CEI labor policy expert…
Blog
Yes, Let’s Debate Taking Rights Away from Workers
Legislation doesn’t get much simpler than the National Right To Work Act. Introduced by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson…
Blog
Biden Administration Wants to Decide When Freelancers Are “Legitimate”
The Department of Labor (DOL) announced Thursday, March 11 that it was rescinding a rule issued by the previous administration on when workers…
Blog
House Passes Legislation to Limit Individual Worker Rights
The House of Representatives passed legislation late Tuesday to significantly limit individual workers’ rights. That is, granted, not how the Protecting the Right…
Blog
Teacher Union Resistance to School Openings Keeping Moms out of Workforce
The closure of schools and the resistance by teachers’ unions to reopening them is having the spillover effect of forcing more women out of the…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing PRO Act
View Full Document as PDF Dear Members of Congress, We write in strong opposition to the PRO Act and every provision within this bill that…
Blog
Congress Should Read the Fine Print on Sami’s Law
Whether a person is an employee of an app-based ridesharing company like Uber or Lyft under U.S. law has been a major hot button issue.
News Release
U.S. Economy Added 379,000 Jobs in Feb. 2021 – Small Progress, Further Steps Needed
Today the Labor Department released national unemployment figures for the month of February 2021, revealing not much has changed in a month. February’s unemployment rate…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Express Strong Support for the Modern Worker Empowerment Act
Dear Senator Scott and Congresswoman Stefanik: On behalf of the Coalition to Promote Independent Entrepreneurs, a national coalition of organizations, companies, and independent entrepreneurs that…
Blog
Alternate Minimum Wage Proposal Suggests Punishing Business Is the Real Goal
Fans of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour have come up with a workaround for the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling Thursday that that…
The Washington Examiner
The Secret History of the Minimum Wage Movement
As congressional Democrats push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s worth asking where that figure came from. Why $15 (more…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike will Force Cuts Elsewhere
With the Democrat-controlled Congress aiming to imminently pass a plan to increase the federally-mandated minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour nationwide as part…
Blog
Are Democrats All or Nothing for a $15 Minimum Wage?
Can congressional Republicans bid down the Democrats’ and Biden administration’s push for a $15 an hour minimum wage? That’s what Republicans lead by Sens.
Blog
The Regional Differences Argument against a $15 Minimum Wage
The strongest political argument against increasing the federal minimum wage is the regional differences argument. Basically, while a $15 minimum wage might not be a…
Blog
California’s Khanna Says Businesses that Cannot Pay $15 Wages Are Dying Anyway
California Congressman Ro Khanna has a message for businesses that say they cannot afford to pay a $15 minimum wage an hour for their workers:…
The Hill
The Problem With A One-Size-Fits-All Federal Minimum Wage Hike
Minimum wage mandates aren’t free. They force employers to make difficult decisions and tradeoffs. When government forces wages up, non-wage pay goes down: Workers get…
Blog
Biden Administration Presses Forward with Attack on Gig Economy Companies
The Biden administration last week continued its effort to help its union allies by officially withdrawing a Trump-era Labor Department guidance letter to businesses…
Blog
UK Court Ruling on Uber will Mean Fewer, More Expensive Rides, and Fewer Jobs
Today, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled on an important question as to whether certain drivers who work with Uber are entitled to…
Blog
Biden Picks Top Union Attorney to Enforce Labor Rules
The Biden administration announced this week that it was nominating Jennifer Abruzzo to serve as acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board…
Blog
CBO Restates the Obvious: Raising the Minimum Wage Costs Jobs
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday reaffirmed something we already knew but that bears repeating: Higher minimum wages costs jobs. The CBO’s…
Blog
January Jobs Gain Threatened by Prospect of Minimum Wage Hike
The Labor Department’s report Friday that the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in January, down 0.4 points from the previous month, is good news that…
Blog
Biden Administration Begins Bid to Create Nationwide Version of California’s AB5
On the same day that President Joe Biden’s nominee for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, told a Senate committee that he would…
National Review
The Dark Side of the Minimum Wage
President Biden and his fellow Democrats are pushing hard to increase the federal minimum wage to $15, and polls show strong…
Blog
Questions for Marty Walsh
President Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will get his first Senate hearing on Thursday. Walsh is a former union head…
Fortune
One of Biden’s First Acts as President May Have Broken the Law
One of Joe Biden’s first acts as President of the United States, the removal of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel Peter Robb, was…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing $15 Minimum Wage
View Full Document as PDF Dear Member of Congress, On behalf of millions of taxpayers across the country, we urge you to reject…
Blog
Be Skeptical of Studies that Say Minimum Wage Hikes Are Painless
Do economists downplay the negative findings in their research on the minimum wage? That’s the implication of a new working paper on the issue for…
Inside Sources
Biden Attack on Keystone Pipeline Bodes Ill For Jobs, Economy
Among the list of things President Joe Biden has reportedly promised to do immediately upon taking office is reversing President Donald Trump’s…
The Daily Signal
Will Biden’s Policies Lead to Job Losses? Here Are Possible Economic Impacts of 4 of Them
The Daily Signal cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on the impact of a minimum wage increase: However, the economic impact isn’t limited…
News Release
Federal Minimum Wage Hike to $15 an Hour Will Hurt Small Businesses, Lead to Lost Jobs
President-elect Joe Biden today announced a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery plan that includes not only $1,400 stimulus checks to many Americans but a federal minimum…
Blog
Will the Next Labor Secretary Support Job-Killing Climate Measures?
President-elect Biden has selected most of his nominees to head the federal departments, and he has made clear to them that addressing climate change should…
Blog
Department of Labor Cautions “Gig Economy” Companies against Limiting Workers’ Freedom
The Department of Labor (DOL) said on Wednesday, January 6, that if someone is currently working for one or more of your business rivals, then…
News Release
December Job Losses in Leisure & Hospitality Eclipse Gains in Other Sectors – What Can Policymakers Do?
The Labor Department reported today the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December 2020. Gains in various sectors were eclipsed by 500,000 jobs lost in…
Blog
Biden Labor Nominee Marty Walsh Poised to Make Radical Changes
Joe Biden’s decision to nominate Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary will elevate a person to oversee the nation’s workplace who is not…
News Release
Biden’s Labor Dept. Pick Will Likely Seek Union-First Policies
President-elect Joe Biden announced Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his pick for Labor secretary. That signals a union-first approach to labor policy, predicts Sean…
The Washington Examiner
The Davis-Bacon Act May Present Challenges To Biden’s Infrastructure Plans
The Washington Examiner cites Research Fellow Sean Higgins on the Davis-Bacon Act: One of the reasons for the delay was the Obama…
Blog
Labor Department Independent Contractor Rule out Today
The Department of Labor (DOL) acted to promote entrepreneurialism and protect freelancers on Wednesday by issuing a new rule under the Fair Labor Standards…
National Review
How an Inexplicable New York Court Decision Threatens Uber and Lyft
Imagine a job where you only need to show up for work when you feel like it, and when you do show up, you can refuse…
Blog
To-Do List for 2021: Just Get Rid of AB5
It isn’t just Washington that gets a fresh start beginning in January. California gets one, too. One of the top items on the Golden State’s…
Blog
UAW Corruption Case Reveals Lack of Accountability at Union
Today the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement in a long-running corruption probe of the United Auto Workers (UAW) that will put the…
Blog
Democrats Hoping to Unionize Entire Sectors of Economy at Once
Democratic lawmakers will push to have entire sectors of the economy unionized, a practice called “sectoral bargaining,” when Congress reconvenes next year. The idea behind…
Inside Sources
Does ‘Blue Collar Joe’ Biden Underwhelm Union Workers?
President-elect Joe Biden has radical ideas to build up union membership in Pennsylvania and across the country, having endorsed policies that labor leaders have wanted…
Blog
Labor Department Job Report Shows Improvement but Challenges Ahead
The Labor Department’s Friday report that 245,000 jobs were added in November confirms that, while an economic recovery is still underway, its momentum is…
Blog
Biden’s OMB Pick, Neera Tanden, Once Warned Democrats against a $15 Minimum Wage
Joe Biden’s choice of Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, to be the next director of the Office of Management and…
Blog
A Cold Winter for Santa in Sunland, California
Department store Santa Claus Patrick Turnbull has hoisted children onto his lap and listened to their Christmas wishes for two decades in Sunland, California, but…
National Review
Exit Polls Suggest Little Enthusiasm for Biden among Union Members
Although Joe Biden won a majority of votes cast by labor-union members, available data suggest he did slightly worse than past Democratic presidential candidates. That’s despite…
Blog
Biden to Focus on Public Sector Unions First?
All indications are that the Biden administration will be the most pro-labor one since at least Harry Truman’s. Biden has promised to defer to labor…
Blog
Can New York’s Hotel Industry Survive the Latest Union Victory?
Numerous New York City hotel owners are struggling to stay alive and their workers’ union isn’t exactly making it easy for them. In fact, there…
