License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing is the first national study to measure how burdensome occupational licensing laws are for lower-income workers and aspiring entrepreneurs.
The report documents the license requirements for 102 low- and moderate-income occupations—such as barber, massage therapist and preschool teacher—across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It finds that occupational licensing is not only widespread, but also overly burdensome and frequently irrational.
On average, these licenses force aspiring workers to spend nine months in education or training, pass one exam and pay more than $200 in fees. One third of the licenses take more than a year to earn. At least one exam is required for 79 of the occupations.
Barriers like these make it harder for people to find jobs and build new businesses that create jobs, particularly minorities, those of lesser means and those with less education.
License to Work recommends reducing or removing needless licensing barriers. The report’s rankings of states and occupations by severity of licensure burdens make it easy to compare laws and identify those most in need of reform.
Austin, Tex.—Today, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled in favor of five eyebrow threaders and against a state agency that wanted to lock them out of their jobs with expensive and irrelevant licensing requirements. The Court ruled 6 to 3 that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) violated the state constitution when it…
Arlington, Va.—Two independently produced reports released today by two of the nation’s leading advocates for entrepreneurs shine a spotlight on the intersection of government and work among lower-income workers and entrepreneurs. Taken together, the reports—released by the Institute for Justice as well as the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation together with Thumbtack.com—raise important questions for lawmakers…