Ranking the States

As Table 4 shows, Louisiana and Washington license 77 of the 102 occupations studied here—more than any of the other states. They are followed closely by California (76) and Nevada (75). Just as in the first edition of this report, Wyoming licenses the fewest—a mere 26. It is followed by Vermont (31), Montana (32), and South Dakota (32). On average, states license 54 of the occupations.

When it comes to the burdens states impose on would-be workers, however, a different picture emerges. Table 5 ranks states from most to least burdensome. Hawaii tops the list as the most burdensome state, as it did in the first edition, with an average of almost 988 days in education and experience, more than $430 in fees, almost two exams, and grade and age requirements for the 63 occupations it licenses. Nevada is not far behind, with an average of more than 860 days lost to education and experience, more than $700 in fees, almost two exams, and grade and age requirements for the 75 occupations it licenses. California, Arizona and Florida round out the top five most burdensome states. In all, 18 states require more than a year of education and experience on average for the occupations they license.

Nebraska is the least burdensome state, with 118 days—not quite four months—in education and experience, $76 in fees, one exam, and grade and age requirements. Three states—Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Washington—follow closely with similar burdens: less than six months of education and experience, $138 to $209 in fees, one exam, and grade and age requirements.

Taking into account both how many occupations a state licenses and how onerously, Table 6 ranks states according to a combined measure of number of occupations licensed and average burden of licensing requirements. States that appear high on this list are those that license a large number of occupations and impose more burdensome requirements.

By this measure, California ranks at the top, with an average of almost 827 days—more than two years—in education and experience, $486 in fees and two exams, as well as grade and age requirements. It also licenses 76 occupations. Nevada ranks a close second. Seven of the top 10 most burdensome states, listed in Table 5, remained in the top 10 in Table 6: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Virginia. These states already imposed comparably heavy licensure burdens on their citizens; factoring in the number of occupations licensed merely changed their relative positions among the top 10 most burdensome states.

A handful of other states license relatively few occupations but do so onerously. They rank high in Table 5 but substantially lower in Table 6. Examples include Kentucky (12th most burdensome, but 40th combined), Montana (23rd most burdensome, but 49th combined), South Dakota (19th most burdensome, but 48th combined), Texas (21st most burdensome, but 42nd combined) and Wyoming (25th most burdensome, but 51st combined).

Conversely, some states impose relatively light burdens but license a large number of occupations. Such states include Mississippi (66 occupations, 46th most burdensome), Nebraska (63 occupations, 51st most burdensome), Tennessee (71 occupations, 39th most burdensome), Washington (77 occupations, 48th most burdensome) and West Virginia (70 occupations, 44th most burdensome).

The State Profiles provide summary results for each state as well as tables showing all of the occupations licensed by a given state and their respective burdens, including both our standardized estimate of time lost to education and experience and—in an improvement from the first edition—the actual education and experience requirements.

Table 4: Number and Percentage of Lower-Income Occupations Licensed by State

Table 5: States Ranked by Average Burden of Licensing Requirements

Table 6: States Ranked by Number and Average Burden of Licensing Requirements Combined