How onerous regulations reduce job opportunities by making it more expensive for businesses to hire and how regulations affect economic growth.
The Davis–Bacon Act (DBA) requires the government to pay construction wages that average 22 percent above market rates. This shields unions from competition on federal construction projects. It will also add $10.9 billion to the deficit in 2011. Read More.
The federal pay system unnecessarily inflates federal pay. My research shows that, on average, federal employees earn hourly wages 22 percent higher than otherwise comparable private-sector workers. Numerous studies by researchers whose personal views span the political spectrum come to similar conclusions. Read More.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report showing that federal employees receive substantially more compensation than similarly skilled workers in the private sector. National media, from The New York Times to National Public Radio, reported this "news." Read More.
Federal law caps the wages of over 8 million middle class workers. Union contracts set both a wage floor and a wage ceiling--unionized employers may not give productive workers pay raises outside the collectively bargained contract. Read More.
Issues 2012 provides candidates for elected office the ability to quickly identify the key issues of the day and present clear policy recommendations, supported by facts, for addressing them. Read More.
A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report defines and counts the green jobs in the American economy.[1] Cheerleaders for the President’s program of green jobs mandates and spending point to the study as confirmation of green jobs’ economic importance. However, analysis of the BLS data provides more…
Testimony before Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, United States Senate …
Abstract: Labor unions should serve the interest of employees—not the other way around, as often happens. Legislation introduced in Congress would go a long way toward making this a reality. The Employee Rights Act guarantees workers a private, informed, uncoerced vote on unionizing. The…
FYI: Heritage WebMemos are now called Issue Briefs. Congressional leaders have agreed to maintain extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits while reducing maximum benefit duration to one-and-a-half years. The legislation moves in the right direction, but in an improving labor market, Congress…
Abstract: A January 2012 report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that federal government employees receive substantially higher compensation than similarly skilled workers in the private sector. The report’s methodology and conclusions are broadly similar to previous studies from both The Heritage Foundation…
President Obama recently sent Congress a series of policies as part of his “Startup America Initiative.”[1] The goal of the program is to help startups and small businesses to create jobs. The proposal includes four tax provisions that he also included in his budget. Some…
Abstract: In his third State of the Union address, President Obama, pointing to two years of job growth and the fastest job creation since 2005, argued that America’s economy is roaring back. These positive numbers lack context: In normal economic times they would represent…
Testimony before The Joint Economic Committee United States Congress February…
Union density in the American workplace fell to a new post–World War II low of 11.8 percent in 2011. Private-sector union membership remained at 6.9 percent—less than when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Union membership has fallen because…
What Is Mandatory Paid Sick Leave? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) currently requires companies with more than 50 workers to provide eligible employees with up to 12…
What do unions do? The AFL-CIO argues that unions offer a pathway to higher wages and prosperity for the middle class. Critics point to the collapse of many highly unionized domestic industries and argue that unions harm the economy. To whom should policymakers listen? What unions do has been studied…
Abstract: Salaries and benefits—for identical jobs—are 30 percent to 40 percent higher in the federal government than in the private sector. Claims that this dramatic discrepancy in compensation is warranted because of government workers’ high skills are unjustified, as this study shows. Equally unjustified…
Abstract: New regulations from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor are designed to swell the ranks of unionized labor at the expense of workers, employers, and the U.S. economy. The new NLRB rules that would shorten union-organizing elections to between 10 and…
The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires contractors on all federal construction projects to pay their workers the prevailing wage in their locality. The law is intended to ensure that the government does not drive down construction workers' wages, but flaws in the U.S. Department of Labor's wage determination process have…
The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires contractors on all federal construction projects to pay their workers the prevailing wage in their locality. The law is intended to ensure that the government does not drive down construction workers' wages, but flaws in the U.S. Department of Labor's wage determination process cause…
Supporters of raising the minimum wage argue that doing so will reduce poverty. It seems intuitive that raising the minimum wage would have this effect. Presumably, requiring employers to pay their lowest-paid employees more would lift large numbers of low-income households out of poverty. But the evidence shows that this does not happen. Despite…
Roughly half of the anticipated gains in insurance coverage from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1] are achieved through a massive expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal–state health insurance program for the poor. The Medicaid program, with its soaring price tag and dubious level of care…
One of the central goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1] was to increase the number of individuals with health insurance coverage. To encourage employers to offer coverage, the new law creates a tax penalty on firms with more than 50 workers that fail to…
What Are Extended Unemployment Insurance Benefits? States provide unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to involuntarily unemployed workers. UI benefits typically replace 35–40 percent of a worker’s weekly income. …
What Would the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees (RAISE) Act Do? The RAISE Act would allow employers to pay individual workers more than their union contracts specify. This…
The bosses at the Department of Labor (DOL) have decided that federal wage and overtime provisions should not apply when...…
The House of Representatives is poised to pass legislation today that prohibits the National Labor Relations Board from...…
Some 14 million Americans are jobless, but there just aren’t enough qualified sheepherders or goatherders to meet...…
Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy
Assistant Director, Center for Data Analysis and Research Fellow
Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy
Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics