Jobs requiring licenses way up: do licensing requirements restrict job opportunities or protect the public?

AuthorWeiss, Suzanne
PositionOCCUPATIONAL LICENSING

Once upon a time, all you needed to go into business and make a living was the know-how, resources and equipment necessary to keep your business afloat. But over the past few decades, the percentage of Americans who cannot work without obtaining a license or other form of government consent has grown significantly--from about 4 percent in the 1950s to nearly 25 percent today.

Occupational licensing laws were first passed to protect the public from negligent, unqualified and substandard practitioners, but increasingly they are seen as a mechanism designed not to protect consumers, but rather to insulate existing business interests from competition.

Critics charge that licensing requirements contribute to higher prices for goods and services, discourage specialization and innovation, restrict employment opportunities, and make it more difficult for workers to take their skills across state lines.

Today, roughly 1,100 occupations are regulated in at least one state, ranging from highly specialized professions like medicine, law and engineering to what once were considered "odd jobs"--and a whole lot of things in between, from elevator operators to casket sellers, hearing-aid dealers to upholsterers, lightning-rod installers to turtle farmers, interior decorators to reptile catchers.

"Most things that should be licensed, are licensed," says Ken Levine, director of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. "But there are some things that don't need to be. There is, really, over-regulation and over-licensing."

Levine's agency, created by the Texas Legislature in 1977 as an independent monitor of the performance of state agencies, has from time to time recommended removing licensing requirements for certain occupations, including dietitians, dyslexia therapists and radiologic technologists.

In all but a couple of instances, "the Legislature didn't agree with us," Levine says

The number of licensed job categories varies from a high of 177 in California to a low of 41 in Missouri, with the average among states in the mid-90s.

Licensing requirements vary widely from state to state, too. For example, Michigan mandates three years of education and training to become a licensed security guard, while most other states require only 11 days or less. South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska require 16 months of education to become a licensed cosmetologist, while New York and Massachusetts require less than eight months.

Many states require twice as much training for...

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