From the article…
Occupational-licensing obstacles are much more common than they once were. “In the 1950s, about one in 20 American workers needed an occupational license before they could work in the occupation of their choice,” the report states. “Today, that figure stands at about one in four.”
These figures are drawn from License to Work, a report released this week by the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that has sued state governments on behalf of numerous small-business owners and members of the working class who’ve faced unduly onerous obstacles while trying to earn a living.
They are at their most pernicious when they are both needless and most burdensome to the middle class, the working class, and recent immigrants to a society. The IJ report focuses its attention on these cases, surveying 102 lower-income occupations across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It concludes that “most of the 102 occupations are practiced in at least one state without state licensing and apparently without widespread harm.” In other words, dropping many of those requirements likely wouldn’t do any harm. Just 23 of the occupations surveyed are licensed in at least 40 states. Their online dataset helpfully allows anyone to search occupations per their interests. I learned that all 50 states license barbers while just 13 license bartenders.
To be a florist in Louisiana, the only state to regulate them, one must take an exam and pay $189. Seven different jurisdictions require a license to be a tree trimmer. California demands that tree trimmers have four years experience, pay $529, and take two exams; Maryland requires two years of training and one year of experience.
EMTs hold lives in their hands, yet 73 other occupations have greater average licensure burdens: barbers and cosmetologists, home entertainment installers, interior designers, log scalers, manicurists and numerous contractor designations … while the average cosmetologist must complete 386 days of training, the average EMT must complete a mere 34. Even the average tree trimmer must complete more than 16 times the amount of education and experience.
Texas requires licenses for 37 occupations studied in the report. Said Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, concurring in a 2015 case that struck down occupational licensing requirements for people engaged in eyebrow threading:
As today’s case shows, the Texas occupational licensure regime, predominantly impeding Texans of modest means, can seem a hodge-podge of disjointed, logic-defying irrationalities, where the burdens imposed seem almost farcical, forcing many lower-income Texans to face a choice: submit to illogical bureaucracy or operate an illegal business? Licensure absurdities become apparent when you compare the wildly disparate education/experience burdens visited on various professions. The disconnect between the strictness of some licensing rules and their alleged public-welfare rationale is patently bizarre.
Too often, occupational-licensing laws are less about protecting workers or consumers as a class than they are about protecting the interests of incumbents. Want to compete with me? Good luck, now that I’ve lobbied for a law that requires you to shell out cash and work toward a certificate before you can begin.
How to withdraw the undue status that incumbent interests are exploiting?Among several worthwhile reforms advanced in the report’s conclusion, I was taken by the call to make it easier for aspiring workers and entrepreneurs to bring legal challenges against licensing laws. “The U.S. Constitution protects the right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference, yet courts have often been reluctant to enforce this right by striking down arbitrary or irrational licensing laws,” it notes. “Under the prevailing legal standard, licensing laws are presumed valid when challenged in court, and individuals must prove that they are unconstitutional. This gets it exactly backward. Governments should have to prove that licensing laws advance legitimate health and safety concerns to justify restrictions on the right to earn a living.”
A central plank of the American dream is at stake.
The Institute for Justice does great work, filing lawsuits against the stupid kind of laws mentioned in the article. If you’re looking for a worthwhile cause to fund, that actually helps poor people who are trying to better their own lives, consider the Institute for Justice.
— “A central plank of the American dream is at stake.”
The entire article is proof that it’s not at stake. It’s *gone*. The effort is really about trying to get it back.
I’m a tight wad & don’t really care how my hair looks so when I’m due for a cut I go to whichever chain currently has a coupon.In these places there tend to be lots of women who have either just graduated cosmetology school or are experienced but have just moved here from another state.
The last time I was in a salon the gal who cut me had just moved down from Michigan.Fla. requires 1200 classroom hours and I asked her about her license since I thought Fla was so strict.
Hell,Michigan requires 1500 hours of school so it was no problem to transfer her license.
It might be reasonable to require a day or so of training to be trained in sanitation and recognizing disease but the market should determine whether or not they are qualified to cut hair,not the state.
Also,these licenses cost $ and lives because of the upward pressure on prices caused by a lack of competition.Years ago I read about a study that found the states with the highest rates of homeowner electrocutions were also the strictest states for licensing electricians.With a limited supply of workers the prices went up,causing more people to attempt home repairs themselves,many of whom were not skilled enough to do the repairs.
1500 HOURS of training … to cut hair???
Fucken Cosmetology lobbyists! Off with their hair! Errr, head.
Terrific article. Does a great job pointing out how “free” we are. Wink wink nod nod.
Most of y’all have no idea of the BULLSHIT non-stop licencing/training required for a psychologist. It’s worse than insane, and Ms Freud is this close to calling it quits.
EMT Paramedic here. Four semesters of college after EMT Basic and Intermediate which were one semester of one class. EMT-B about 150 hours. intermediate another 150 hours. Then the medic. It is very different for each state. Talking New Mexico here
Remember the monk who self immolated? I think it was over something similar.
IF a thing CAN be done, a man/government is justified in doing it.
I almost say if this is the direction don’t be surprised or indignant about the welfare roles expanding. You get more of what you subsidise and less of what you punish/tax/regulate/control.
Political systems•people are gamers revolving around cheating. Color of law criminality is….”legit.” See, it says so right here….
1000 pruning magic word leaves to each one backing away from the root (which ain’t hackable). The root veggies, potato heads, have never seen blight. Thus the famine. And the Irish relocate, or die. Or both.
As Gary North said, ” The market always certifies, the government never certifies”.
Just imagine if your driver’s license did not allow you to cross state lines while driving. There would be outrage. Yet, many concealed carry and occupational licenses do not have reciprocity. This despite most states using the same standards and criteria for both. In some cases the same 3rd party contractors for testing and certification as well.
And to make it even more fun, non-competes are endemic throughout the economy.
People pay politicians to give them a n advantage in business. It’s not right but that is the way it’s always been . It is not going to change.
Ok, so it’s just a matter of time until all small business dies. Everyone, eventually, will be working for either the government or corporations…but I repeat myself.
Hidden taxes, that’s all these things are.
Many of these are just ridiculous. In the medical field I think it is important though as new technology, procedures and research require a lifetime of learning, but the costs are ridiculous and nothing more than fee gouging—example: most doctors are required to take Continuing Education throughout their entire careers. The part that burns me though is that the 120 credit hours usually run at around $50-80 per hour for each course.
The AMA and licensing boards determine which courses and topics are acceptable for your field. So what happens is that the companies that provide the courses have to be licensed themselves and pay to be considered “acceptable, verified educators.’
Of course that is why the courses are costing thousands total every few years, and of course you have to pay for the license renewal, verify you have your CEU’s and then pay a third time to take an oral and written exam every 4 to 7 years depending your specialty.
A large part of this is just going to the govt at various levels– this is why it is all just another tax through regulation.
Murray Rothbard said if licensing and/or education become mandatory for a profession, but those already in the business are exempt and grand-fathered in, it’s a racket to keep out competition. If it were that important, those already in business would need licensing and/or regulation as well.