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
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
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Unemployment and Government Policy
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains why recent government policies have not solved the unemployment problem.
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.6%, 54,000 More Jobs Lost
Unemployment went back up to 9.6%, as the nation shed 54,000 jobs in August. Yet Obama calls this “Recovery Summer.” This is…
Blog
Will Grading Cars Dispell or Enhance “MPG Illusion”?
As discussed in my recent post “Obama’s EPA: School Marms R Us,” EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) are…
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on Non-Union Union Pickets
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio explains the practice of labor unions hiring non-union workers for minimum wage to protest non-union wages on…
Blog
Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
Op-Eds
Mary Kay Henry Takes over SEIU
Full document available in pdf Originally appeared in…
Blog
Unions hire non-union protesters?
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqm5RRBCmiw 285 234]…
Blog
Video Exposes Labor Union Protesters – No “Living Wage,” No Health Insurance, No Union Membership
Video: Unions hire non-union protesters? Should labor unions pay their protesters the wages and benefits that the unions demand of other employers? CEI labor…
Citation
Caution: Big Labor Hypocrisy at Work
Op-Eds
Trading on the Recession
China recently overtook Japan as the second largest national economy in the world. Thirty years ago, when China began liberalizing its economy under the leadership…
Op-Eds
Unions Hire Non-Union Picketers
The Mid-Atlantic Region of Carpenters (MARC) is notorious for hiring non-union workers to walk their union picket lines. These paid non-union picketers are usually…
Citation
Caution: Big Labor Hypocrisy at Work
Blog
Obama’s EPA: School Marms R Us
The Obama Administration’s EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) are proposing new rules “labeling each passenger car with a government letter grade from A…
Blog
Money for Nothing
A Virginia man collected 12 years of salary despite never showing up to his government job.
Citation
Casey-Pomeroy Bill Would Bail Out PBGC, Union Pensions
Citation
Visa Fee Hike Will Adversely Impact Indian Companies, Admits US
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Firms: USA
Citation
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…
Citation
Visa Fee Hike Could Impact Indian cos: US
Citation
Visa Fee Increase Could Impact Indian Companies: US
Citation
Vincent Vernuccio on union pension bailouts
Competitive Enterprise Institute Labor Policy Counsel Vincent Vernuccio argues against union pension bailouts.
Citation
Bobby Bailout: Casey to Put Taxpayers on Hook for Teamsters’ Shenanigans
Citation
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…