The New Right wants to help workers. Its labor policy will hurt them

This essay is a part of The Right Way Forward, Restoring America’s new think tank debate series in which leading conservative institutions argue the defining questions of the post-Trump era. Read about the series here.

For decades, conservatives agreed on the simple premise that the best foundation for good jobs, rising wages, and expanding opportunity was the free market, not government mandates. 

Recently, that consensus has fractured as the New Right has embraced a more interventionist approach to labor policy — one that flirts with wage mandates, stronger unions, sectoral bargaining, mandates for faster labor contracts, and laws micromanaging a single employer’s warehouses.

The concerns are real. Wages haven’t kept pace with major costs such as healthcare, housing, and higher education. In many places, it’s harder for younger people to buy a home and raise a family, particularly on one income. 

The Right’s renewed focus on workers is overdue. But policy prescriptions