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
Court rejects New York bid to take over federal labor enforcement
An effort by the New York legislature to usurp the role of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency,…
Law & Liberty
America’s Hidden Judiciary
Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely…
Blog
New York, California make a play for federal labor law enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the main federal labor law enforcement agency, currently lacks a quorum to act. Ordinarily, that type of federal…
Search Posts
News Release
Report: California A.B. 5 Labor Law Will Mean Huge Costs for Rideshare Companies, Drivers, Consumers
A Competitive Enterprise Institute report crunches numbers on California’s new law imposing massive costs and impediments for rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, along with…
Study
California Ride Share Contracting Legislation Is a Solution in Search of a Problem
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5) into law on September 18, 2019.[1] The legislation, which generally takes effect…
Blog
National Labor Relations Board Attack on McDonald’s Finally Over
A major holdover case from the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which acted as the litigation arm of organized labor, is finally resolved. On…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing H.R. 397, Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act
Dear Senators and Representatives: The undersigned organizations urge Congress to reject H.R. 397 the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions (Butch-Lewis) Act of 2019. Ultimately, this legislation…
Blog
How Kentucky Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Union Business
As taxpayers, we trust our locally elected officials to act as fiduciaries of our hard-earned dollars. However, it is well documented that the government frequently…
News Release
Report Finds Kentucky Wastes Tax Money on Labor Union “Release Time”
New information unearthed by a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) open records inquiry reveals how Kentucky wastes taxpayer money on a little-known practice called union “release…
Study
Union Time on the Taxpayer Dime
“Forcing free and independent individuals to endorse ideas they find objectionable is always demeaning,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion in Janus v…
The Heartland Institute
Project Labor Agreements Have Cost New Jersey Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars Since 2002
The Heartland Institute cites policy analyst Trey Kovacs on Project Labor Agreements: PLAs put unionized workers in a privileged position, says Trey Kovacs, a…
Reason
Target Employees Won The ‘Fight For $15’ but Weren’t Ready for the Trade-Offs
Reason cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on minimum wage: But the bottom line is that wage increases do not exist in a vacuum.
The Telegraph
Small Businesses Navigating Impending Minimum Wage Hikes
The Telegraph cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on minimum wage hikes: A study this month by the pro-limited-government think tank the Competitive Enterprise…
Los Angeles Daily News
The Cost of Ending Independent Work
The California legislature managed to pass a near statutory prohibition on independent work in misguided bid to “protect workers.” Lawmakers achieved this outcome by redefining…
Fox Business
Chicago Teachers Strike—What Benefits the Union vs. What Benefits Teachers and Students
For the second time in less than a decade, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) decided to go on strike. Since Thursday, the Chicago Public School…
The Washington Times
Trump Executive Orders Curtail Union Business on the Taxpayer Dime
Imagine each working day, federal employees report for work but do not perform any governmental duties. Instead, they work for a private enterprise void of…
Blog
Labor Relations Chief Corrects Record on ‘Joint Employer’ Rule
Chairman John Ring delivered the latest salvo in response to the manufactured “scandal” at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Democrats, with help from the…
Blog
Priorities for Department of Labor’s New Secretary
On September 30th, Eugene Scalia was sworn in as the 28th Secretary of Labor. Last week, the Senate confirmed Scalia on a 53-44 vote. With…
Blog
New Study: Minimum Wages Have Tradeoffs
Congress nearly increased the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour this year. Though the Raise the Wage Act is unlikely to pass…
News Release
Minimum Wage Increases Canceled Out by Non-Wage Losses: CEI Report
Is raising the minimum wage good for workers? A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute makes the case that there are serious tradeoffs lawmakers…
Study
Minimum Wages Have Tradeoffs
Raising the minimum wage is currently a top policy issue at the federal, state, and local levels. This paper opposes increases for three reasons, and…
News Release
Trump Labor Department Rule on Overtime Pay Scraps Toxic Obama-Era Ratchet
Today, the U.S. Labor Department released its long-awaited rule on overtime pay for salaried employees. Competitive Enterprise Institute labor policy analyst Trey Kovacs praised the…
Blog
California to Eliminate Independent Work
Late Tuesday evening, the California legislature passed controversial legislation that would codify a state Supreme Court decision, which adopted a flawed test that effectively prohibits…
Blog
How Accounting Reform Can Help Address Public Pension Underfunding
By deferring compensation, in the form of pensions, and pushing those costs well into the future, politicians can gain favor with government employee unions, which…
Blog
Union Wish List Bill Would Harm Workers and the Economy
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a report that analyzes the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2019 (H.R. 2474), which the…
News Release
Labor Union ‘Grab Bag’ Bill Takes Away Worker Choice, Greases Wheels for Unions
Workers should have the right and freedom to decide for themselves whether to join a union. But a proposed bill, the “Protecting the Right to…
Study
The Case against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019 (H.R. 2474) would radically overhaul United States labor relations law to facilitate labor union organizing without…
Blog
PRO Act Undermines Employee Choice
Democrats in Congress introduced the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act with the state goal of strengthening union power and increasing union membership, which…
Blog
Underfunded Public Pensions Put Future Taxpayers on the Hook
One of the most well-known and enduring lessons of public choice economics is the dynamic of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs. Well-organized groups have both…
Blog
Greater Financial Transparency Could Prevent Next Union Scandal
Earlier this year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation served indictments to several high level United Auto Workers (UAW) officials, some of who have already pleaded…
Comment
CEI Comments on DOL Labor Organization Annual Financial Reports for Trusts in Which a Labor Organization Is Interested
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Labor-Management…
Blog
Long Wait for Worker Freedom Finally Ends for Airline, Rail Employees
It is a banner day for employee choice. For the first time, airline and railroad workers have a direct path to remove an unwanted union.
Inside Sources
More Than Jobs – the Minimum Wage’s Many Tradeoffs
The House of Representatives will likely vote this week on a plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. Much…
Blog
House Passes ‘Raise the Wage’ Act
The Raise the Wage Act, which passed the House on Thursday, would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025. The bill now moves…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
Minimum Wage Laws Hurt People
Michigan Capitol Confidential cites CEI’s coalition letter opposing a $15 minimum wage. This morning the Competitive Enterprise Institute mailed a letter to members of…
Politico, Morning Shift
$15 Minimum Wage Vote Today
POLITICO’s Morning Shift cites CEI’s coalition letter opposing a $15 minimum wage. An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the original version of the…
News Release
Minimum Wage Hike Passed by House Democrats Would Put Millions Out of Work
House Democrats today passed a federal minimum wage hike, $7.25 to $15 per hour, though with slim expected chance of gaining Senate passage. Politics aside,…
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Minimum Wage Laws Hurt People
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy cites a recent coalition letter led by CEI to oppose a $15 minimum wage. This morning the…
Blog
‘Raise the Wage Act’ Would Reduce Family Incomes, Increases Unemployment
Democrats view raising the minimum wage as a way to show they are are better for working-class Americans than Republicans. But no matter how high government…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter Opposing Raise the Wage Act
Dear Members of Congress: The undersigned organizations urge you to oppose the Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582), which would set a $15 federal minimum…
Marketplace
Labor Department Deregulation Expected to Pick Up Steam After Acosta
Marketplace cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on deregulation efforts from the Department of Labor. “He certainly took what I would say is an…
Reason
At Least 80 Workers Are Losing Their Jobs at This Pennsylvania Steel Plant. Tariffs Are To Blame.
Reason cites Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray on the effects of tariffs. “The layoffs at NLMK were entirely predictable. Tariffs disrupt supply chains…
Blog
Priorities for New Leadership at Department of Labor
There is a new sheriff in town at the Department of Labor. After Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned today from his post, President Trump announced…
InsideSources
One Year After Janus, Conservatives Begin Difficult Campaign to Tackle Union Membership
InsideSources cites CEI on union transparency. A right-leaning think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argues that unions could be more financially transparent about how they use…
The Portland Press Herald
Commentary: A Year After Janus, Many Maine Workers Are Still Unaware of Their Rights
The Portland Press Herald cites CEI on litigation surrounding the Supreme Court’s Janus decision. This is just one example of how unions are…
Blog
State Legislatures Seek to Undermine ‘Janus’ Decision
Labor unions continue to deny the First Amendment rights of public employees despite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which ruled one…
The Boston Globe
Let There Be a Clean Break Between Unions, Nonmembers
The editorial “House gets it mostly right on labor law” misses the mark. The primary provision of the bill that the Globe finds sensible —…
Blog
Post-‘Janus’, Unions Continue Undermining Public Workers’ First Amendment Rights
It has been nearly one year since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the First Amendment rights of public employees, but many members are still having…
Blog
Democrats’ Criticism of Department of Labor Overtime Rule Misguided
Overtime regulation has been a hot topic since the Obama administration proposed and finalized a rule that radically overhauled such requirements. Before this rule, which…
The Washington Times
Kamala Harris Outlines Plan To Penalize Companies That Fail To Close Gender ‘Pay Gaps’
The Washington Times cites Senior Fellow Ryan Young on a legislative plan to penalize companies for gender pay disparties. Ryan Young, a senior…
The Tennessee Star
Trump Administration Ends Unions ‘Skimming’ $100 Million A Year From Medicaid
The Tennessee Star cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on Medicaid rule change made by the Trump Administration. “Congress created Medicaid to exclusively fund…
Boston Globe
Unions are on Frontlines of Fight against Inequality
The Boston Globe cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on labor unions. And even when workers are unionized, they are often forced to bargain…
The Center Square
Trump Administration Ends Unions ‘skimming’ $100 Million Per Year from Medicaid
The Center Square cites Policy Analyst Trey Kovacs on labor unions and Medicaid. “Congress created Medicaid to exclusively fund care to the elderly…
