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
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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…

News Release
April adds 177,000 jobs to economy, tariff policies yet to majorly shakeup labor market: CEI analysis
The job numbers for April show 177,000 jobs were added to the economy, with the unemployment rate staying steady at 4.2 percent. While job growth…

Blog
CEI suggests DOT put the brakes on train two-person crew rule
The Transportation Department recently asked the public for comments on how to reduce the regulatory burden. One thought that the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)…
Search Posts
Blog
Exploiting the Poor: The Minimum Wage
Many people believe that the minimum wage is a major source of America’s prosperity. Actually as of 2009 only 4.9 percent of (employed) workers…
Citation
What Democrats Are Hiding & Why They’re Really Scared
Blog
Meager Part-Time Work Masks Unemployment
Unemployment is often masked by part-time work, since people who would prefer to work full-time are not treated as unemployed by government statistics if they…
Op-Eds
Would You Like a Union With That, Comrade?
Workers at some of America’s fast food restaurants could be in for some interesting times soon. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is attempting…
Citation
Armageddon: What Democrats Are Hiding & Why They Are Really Scared
Blog
Killed by Pension Accounting
Think accounting rules are a boring topic? You wouldn’t if the fate of your business rested on it. Indeed, a rule change may be coming…
Blog
“Livability” versus Mobility: TIGER II
Since the early 1990s when advocates of so-called Smart Growth took control of federal transportation infrastructure policy, we have increasingly heard transportation projects described as…
Blog
Mackinac Appeals Court Decision that would Unionize Independent Home Daycare Workers
Yesterday, the Mackinac Institute of Michigan took another step in its lawsuit challenging the forced unionization of independent daycare workers. The litigation is in response…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Public Sector Unions
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYSkSxWFWo8 285 234]…
Blog
Teacher Accountability in Public Schools
The second-largest teachers union in the country recently dropped its former president’s speeches from its website. Are they trying to hide the fact that their…
Blog
Government Workers Oppose Cuts in Government Jobs…Really
It turns out that government workers have a vested interest in opposing cuts in government jobs. Who knew, right? The Washington Examiner today ran…
Blog
New Jobless Claims Rise to 462,000
New applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 462,000, and unemployment is at 9.6 percent. Employers are reluctant to hire because of…
Op-Eds
The Firemen Next Time
“So the question is, do you want to live in the kind of society in which this happens?” So wrote New York Times columnist…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Public Sector Unions
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains why unions are decreasing in the private sector…
Blog
A Moment on the Lips; A Lifetime on Pay Slips
New studies suggest that very thin women earn proportionately more money than do average-sized women. Comprising only women within 25lbs of doctor-recommended weight, the…
Blog
Status Quo Elitist Attacks Contrarians for Being Elitist Members of the Status Quo
Michael Lewyn, a law professor and anti-“sprawl” activist, has a post on Planetizen about how he and his ilk are supposedly unfairly maligned as…
Blog
Pension Insanity in France
Many people in France are waking up to the reality that they cannot sustain the welfare state indefinitely. Apparently, it isn’t economically feasible to have…
Blog
Our Driverless Future?
Google has been making headlines after the company revealed over the weekend that its driverless cars have logged nearly 140,000 miles on public roads…
Blog
Jobs: Created, Not Made
Welcome to October, the start of a new government fiscal year. 2010 was the year of “jobs created or saved.” Bank and business bailouts may…
Blog
Stimulus Money Went to Prisoners and Dead People
17,000 prison inmates received checks courtesy of the $800 billion stimulus package, notes the Associated Press. $18 million in checks went to dead…
Blog
CEI Weekly: United Auto Workers Shut Down GM Plant
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI staff. This week features Vincent Vernuccio's October 1st interview on Fox Business' Varney &…
Blog
How Not to Tackle Congestion
The Transport Politic’s Yonah Freemark today posted an article praising the anti-automobile policies of Paris’ Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and delivering what he seems to believe…
Blog
Private Employers Cut 39,000 Jobs in September
The private sector shed 39,000 jobs in September. Liberal journalists claim this was “unexpected.” This reveals their shaky grasp of economics. If you…
Blog
Vincent Vernuccio on Union Shutting Down GM Plant
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31i-rRUnMc8 285 234]…
Blog
Skilled Immigrants: More, Please
For every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology firms increase their employment by five workers. The government's artificial limit on skilled immigration is prolonging the recession.
Blog
Job Losses and Productivity Gains
I came across this chart tracking U.S. manufacturing jobs and U.S. productivity over the past 38 years (posted yesterday by Mark Perry). It’s worth…
Blog
Sharing Isn’t Caring
Late last month, Washington, D.C. launched its Capital Bikeshare (“CaBi” to its groupies) program to much acclaim from the usual suspects — New Urbanists and…
Blog
Texting on the Stygian Ferry
“Border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune.” Those were the last words of Malibu plastic surgeon Frank Ryan, best known for…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Hosts Labor Policy Reception
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI staff. This week features CEI's Labor Policy Reception.
Op-Eds
Raise the H-1B visa cap
Rupert Murdoch’s and Michael Bloomberg’s testimony Thursday on Capitol Hill about immigration reform missed one timely and important mention. October 1st marks the beginning of…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Union Shutting Down GM Plant
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains how the UAW chose to shut down a GM plant in Indiana instead of accepting a…
Blog
New EPA Rules Will Cost More than 800,000 Jobs
New EPA rules will cost more than 800,000 jobs, probably far more, according to a newly released congressional report. That includes the EPA’s…
Blog
An Unpaid Internship at the White House
@whitehouse on Twitter alerted me this morning that applications for internships at the White House are due by October 3. I couldn’t help but look…
Citation
U.S. Citizenship: A Brass Ring for Terrorists?
Products
So. SEIU’s Andy Stern Leaving, or Pushed Out
Blog
Unfair ‘Paycheck Fairness Act’ Shafts Workers With Hazardous Jobs
We wrote earlier about the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill of Orwellian deception that would result in employees unfairly receiving equal pay…
Blog
Distracted Driving Kills, But What About Dysfunctional Policy?
The Obama administration, having succeeded in bringing about economic recovery and having nation-built a democratic Afghanistan, has set its sights on another pressing…
Blog
General Motors Now Admits It Didn’t Repay Bailout Money
Contrary to its claims in TV ads earlier this year, General Motors has now admitted that it did not repay…
Blog
Senators Challenge Administration’s Big Labor Giveaway
Despite all they have gotten from the Obama administration, many union leaders have vented their frustration over Democratic lawmakers’ failure to enact the unions’ top…
Blog
Michigan Child Care Workers May Get their Day in Court against Forced Unionization
Today, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered a lower court to explain its dismissal of a class action lawsuit challenging a forced unionization scheme for…
Blog
The Dead Weight Loss of Union Disputes
At Reason Hit & Run, Tim Cavanaugh provides a good observation on the ongoing dispute between the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and…
Op-Eds
California’s Union War
Voting began Monday in one of the most disputed union elections in recent years. The contest pits the powerful Service Employees International Union…
Op-Eds
The War Between SEIU and NUHW: What it Tells Us About Card Check
The battle between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) started coming to a close at several northern California…
Blog
Two Health Care Unions Battle Each Other for Members
Voting began today in one of the most disputed union elections in recent years. The contest pits the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU)…
Blog
Obama Administration Mandates More of the Risky Loans That Spawned the Mortgage Crisis
The federal government is now expanding the affordable-housing mandates that helped spawn the mortgage crisis by goading mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to…
Blog
America Declines in Property Rights, Rule of Law
The World Economic Forum says that property rights are deteriorating in the United States, to the point where America ranks behind third-world countries…
Blog
New Stimulus Plan Gets Skeptical Response, Even From Democrats
Obama’s plan for $50 billion more in stimulus spending is getting a skeptical response even from some Democratic lawmakers. (We explained earlier why…
Blog
Obama Proposes $50 Billion More in Wasteful Deficit Spending
President Obama has proposed $50 billion more in deficit spending after his original $800 billion stimulus package…
Citation
Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
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